Woven Ball Ornaments

Materials:

5- ¼” flat natural reed 18” long or or 4-3/8” flat 18” long

Several pieces of #2 round reed

3/16” dyed reed flat or flat oval

Note: Learning to properly shape these woven balls is tricky.  You will need to keep your ball damp but not wet to shape it.  Your round reed needs to be well soaked to prevent breaking. Keep your stakes straight while reducing the diameter and pack the twining evenly.

This is a basic pattern of twining with 1 row of dyed reed. There are as many variations to this pattern as your imagination can visualize.

 Weaving:

Lay out the 5 pieces of ¼” flat reed evenly spaced, forming a circle with right sides down. Fold a long #2 round reed off centered in half and slide the bend over one of the stakes and twine a small circle around the stakes as close to the center as possible. Straighten and space the stakes.  Continue twining until you have 3 rows.  Pick up the weaving and push the center stakes down forming a slight cup. Pull the stakes up and weave another 5 rows gradually increasing the circle as you go. Now cut and hide your ends.

Weave 1 row of 3/8” flat dyed reed.

Now start two #2 round reeds behind adjacent stakes and begin twining the other half of the ball. Shaping is critical.  Push in on the stakes as you twine, trying to reduce the diameter of the ball evenly, mirroring the shape of the bottom half. Dampen as needed.  By the 8^th row above the dyed reed your twining should be tight between the stakes. You may add another row of twining if the opening is too large. Cut any excess length off the stakes so that they reach about ½” past the start of the twining on the opposite side.  If you are topping with a big, fluffy bow you can push down every other stake into the ball for easier tucking.  Line up the remaining stakes and trim the underside even with the opposite side and the overlayed stake long enough to tuck under the top 2 rows of twining.  Move in one direction following the same process tucking all the remaining stakes.  Now you can tie a ribbon through the tucked stake wheel for hanging on the tree. It may take two or three ornaments to perfect the shaping.  They look great both round and elongated.