I have to confess to having a bit of a ‘problem’ when it comes to Christmas tree decorations – I love them.  Every year I try to add one or two (ok, sometimes a few more than one or two!) new pieces, to go on my tree year after year.  In recent years I’ve tried to make some of these rather than buying them, and this year I’ve bought nothing, which is a first!

What I added to my tree this year were four lovely clear glass baubles which I already had, but which I have filled with wool fibres, giving what I hope you’ll agree is rather a lovely effect.

Making these is very simple – you will require:

• Some plain clear glass baubles, any size but I used 6cm ones.  I bought them from a website a couple of years ago, but I gather they’re often available in craft shops before Christmas.
• Wool scraps, as pretty and colourful as you can find.  I begged these from a friend who’s a keen knitter.

First, gently remove the top from the bauble.  With the normal design of blown glass bauble, you do this by squeezing together the sides of the metal hanging loop, which moves the ends together allowing you to (very carefully, broken bauble glass is sharp!) lift the metal crown from the bauble.

Now take your length of wool – about a foot (30cm or 12″) is probably quite enough depending on how thick and fluffy it is.  Cut this into approximately 5cm / 2″ lengths.

Then tease the wool apart gently into it’s component fibres.  Depending on the thickness and spinning type of the wool this might be more or less difficult, the wool I had was quite a loose structure and came apart very simply.  At this stage you need to assess whether you have enough fibres, since you want enough to loosely fill your bauble.

Finally, use something like a chopstick or a pencil to gently push the fibres inside your bauble, and re-attach the cap.

That’s it, all done in only a minute or two, and the colours and effects you can achieve are only limited by your imagination (and wool collection!).  It’s so simple to create a colourful, textured, unique bauble for the price of a plain clear glass one, and these would make lovely gifts, too!  I’ve also seen pretty things done with ribbons, fabric scraps, or glitter inside clear baubles, so why not get creative!

Updated for 2012 – why limit yourself to wool, there are other things you can fill baubles with, too!

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