These darling little boats were inspired by the sparkly Sebnitz ships of the late 19th century. The small German town of Sebnitz was known for...
DIY these adorable Old World style Cotton Batting Ornaments! These darling Christmas Ornaments were created by Manuela from Vintage Savonette.
These darling little boats were inspired by the sparkly Sebnitz ships of the late 19th century. The small German town of Sebnitz was known for...
My versions of cotton batting Santas are dyed with tea. European artisans created ornaments from a process of spinning cotton, in forms of fruit and vegetables, and sometimes animals and people. Cotton batting ornaments are similar, which were also made in the Lauscha region. These were made from sheets of cotton batting, wrapped around a wire frame and hand painted. Often animal or human figures, these could also be dressed up in miniature items of clothing I made these cotton batting Santas, Belsnickels, many years ago with very similar techniques used in the video below. I used little clay faces, though, instead of scrap ones. The Belsnickel is the forerunner of Santa Claus, a fur-clad and raggedy Christmas gift bringer who beats the children when they are not good. Antique & vintage figures depicting him are popular collectibles, particularly when they possess rabbit-fur beards and other original features. I added rabbit fur, bottle brush trees, old beads, and brown velvet to my versions to make them look similar to those that I had seen in antique shops. Victorians made Christmas ornaments such as these based upon patterns distributed through ladies magazines. Victorian publishers also provided the instructions for multiple variations of cotton batting figures which proved popular across England, Europe and America. These were made in all sorts of shapes and designs, with all manner of materials, and often present a truly unique piece created not for sale, but by a family for their own tree. "I used little clay faces, though, instead of scrap ones." The key interest in antique & vintage Christmas ornaments is that they are hand-made. Whether this was in a home, as part of a town’s cottage industry, or even mass manufactured, as long as the item was crafted by hand and not by machine, it is considered worthy of inclusion among these charming collectibles. You will find them in antique stores, at yard sales, in thrift stores, at flea markets, and on eBay. If you’re lucky, you may discover a hidden cache in your grandparents’ or parents’ attic. You can ascertain an antique or vintage item in a number of ways. Earlier ornaments are smaller than those of today. They are usually decorated in soft colors, with hand painted detail. Hand paint can be verified, so learn to spot it. The more examples you see, the more recognizable you will find it. The paint can often be faded or distressed. Hand blown glass items have an uneven base beneath the cap, while machine made are even. Older companies often marked their names on the item, whereas new cheap examples do not have this. Despite the fact that many items are becoming rarer and more expensive, there are still many many options for collectors on a budget. Prices vary from $1-$12,000 depending on the ornament, condition, and who is selling it. There are a myriad of options, and as always, buy what you admire. Antique cotton vegetables and fruits made for the Christmas tree. Cotton Batting Ornaments: Step-by-Step Directions/Tutorials: DIY Cotton Batting Corn On The Cob Ornament A Craft Tutorial for a Cotton Batting Squirrel A Craft Tutorial for a Cotton Batting Hornet's Nest Wrap a Cotton Batting Christmas Bell Craft a spun cotton batting mushroom by hand DIY cotton batting cup of cocoa tutorial A Craft Tutorial for a Cotton Batting Snowman Craft a Cotton Batting Snow Baby Bend and Twist a Cotton Batting Birdcage Cotton batting angel from Katty's Cosy Cove Craft a Pear From Spun Cotton Batting Sculpt a Cotton Batting Deer Pierrot Cotton Batting Figure Bend a Wire Tree for a Miniature Ornament Collection: cotton batting tree Simple Cotton Batting Acorn Ornaments Cotton Batting Pumpkins (hollow) How to Craft Cotton Batting Yule Log Ornaments DIY Sea Shell Star Ornament Victorian Snowball Garland Tutorial Make This Spun Cotton Antique Looking Wreath Craft Your Own Set of Spun Cotton Icicles Craft a Pea Pod from Cotton Balls Cover a wire frame basket with cotton batting Handcrafted, Cotton Batting, Faux Candles Capturing the veiled lady in cotton... Craft Raspberries from Cotton Batting DIY the Prophet Jonah and Whale DIY a cotton batting spider and web More Examples of Cotton Batting Santas & Figures: Antique bisque baby with snowball German Candy Container Bisque Doll with Snowball Santas From Starr Antiques vintage spun cotton snowman Vintage Inspired Cotton Batting Santas 6.5" Antique Santas My Spun Cotton Christmas and Easter Ornament Pinboard Craft a Snow House for A Christmas Display How to dye textile materials to craft with: Dye Fabric With Coffee (9 Steps) at wikiHow How to Tea-Dye from instructables Tips for Successful Dyeing from Rit How to use Tulip Permanent Fabric Dye Making Natural Dyes from Plants by Pioneer Thinking How to Dye Clothing With Food Coloring Scrap faces and tiny ornamental details: Christmas Winter Scrap Pictures Free Images Vintage Victorian Scrap - Third Set free vintage image - Victorian Woman Scrap Embossed Victorian Scraps Free Angel Wing Ornament Tutorial More articles at this blog about cotton batting ornaments: Novel Decorations for the Christmas Tree Questions and Answers about reproducing cotton batting ornaments Include Cotton Batting and Powdered Mica in Your Christmas Decor! Accessories Frequently Attached to Cotton Batting Ornaments: Marilyn Koehne's Bottlebrush Tree Pinboard How to bleach and dye bottle brush trees Distressing Tinsel, Chenille Stems/Pipe Cleaners! Miniature gingerbread houses from Karin Corbin How to make a miniature Swedish cookie tree Repurposed bottlebrush tree ornaments This video shows a demonstration of the cotton batting Santa craft, step-by-step by Lucy Webber.
The spirit of Christmas past is on me this year. I have been making these beautiful batting ornaments for my tree.There are people who colle...
Here's a great way of making whimsical antique-style spun cotton mushrooms with loops for hanging up as ornaments. These would look adorable on a woodland Christmas...
Check out our tutorial along with project ideas and learn how to make beautiful Vintage Style Ornaments from Spun Cotton Shapes
My little Spun Cotton Leapord Frog, just finished him. He's off to the Mascurade Ball!
These darling little boats were inspired by the sparkly Sebnitz ships of the late 19th century. The small German town of Sebnitz was known for...
DIY these adorable Old World style Cotton Batting Ornaments! These darling Christmas Ornaments were created by Manuela from Vintage Savonette.
Check out our tutorial along with project ideas and learn how to make beautiful Vintage Style Ornaments from Spun Cotton Shapes
Here's a great way of making whimsical antique-style spun cotton mushrooms with loops for hanging up as ornaments. These would look adorable on a woodland Christmas...
The spirit of Christmas past is on me this year. I have been making these beautiful batting ornaments for my tree.There are people who collect old pressed or spun cotton ornaments, such ornaments are rare and hard to find because in the mid-1870 children were given the ornaments to play with and because of this few survive. I prefer to make my own ornaments and decorate them to my taste. I made this angel tree topper using two cds that I didn't like and a cardboard tube. I glued the top of each cd (this is the side that has the lable) to the cardboard tube on opposite sides of the tube. Then I glued a pair of paper wings to each cd so there is an angel on both sides, and I embellished it with glitter and an angel scrap or chromolithographs silhouette as shown below. I made this old style sheep, It is made of sculpey III modeling compound, wooden matchsticks(remove heads). Cotton batting, acrylic paint. For the sheep body, I worked sculpey and formed a roll, then I bent one end to form the neck and head. Then I inserted four matchsticks into the body for legs. Bake according to manufacturer's instructions. After baking I painted the head and eyes then covered the body and legs with batting, and glued with white glue. I made this batting cotton mushroom ornament. I found the instruction here Making paper angel wings To make the batting ornaments I started by cutting a cardboard body and glued two long pieces of chenille stems to the piece of cardboard. I wrapped batting around the stems and cardboard body, glueing while wrapping. Until you cover the entire body like you see in the photo. With this body you can start making an ornament, a santa, doll or an angel. For the santa ornament I used a piece of red felt and wrapped it around the body.I made a cuff by rolling the end of the felt like you see in the photo. Cut a cape like you see in the photo. I glued a piece of chenille stem around the cape edge. I cut a square from a piece of felt and glued one end to make the hat. Glue the cape and hat to body and glue a santa chromolithograph face. You can find this santa face at The ghaphics Fairy blog, and print it. I set this Christmas tree on my bedroom side table. I love it. I want to thank you for all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate it. The winner of the nine paper feather is: Lynda @ Happenstance Home Please email me your address to send your feathers. ********* I want to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year full of bleassings from above.
Check out our tutorial along with project ideas and learn how to make beautiful Vintage Style Ornaments from Spun Cotton Shapes
These darling little boats were inspired by the sparkly Sebnitz ships of the late 19th century. The small German town of Sebnitz was known for...
Blogging about making unique hand made, OOAK , creepy/cute, art dolls in spun cotton ,clay & fabric with an occasional short tutorial .
I love teaching people to make spun cotton ornaments. It’s wonderful to get the opportunity to keep this almost lost art alive. Since it’s usually not possible for people to come to n…
Check out our tutorial along with project ideas and learn how to make beautiful Vintage Style Ornaments from Spun Cotton Shapes
Here's a great way of making whimsical antique-style spun cotton mushrooms with loops for hanging up as ornaments. These would look adorable on a woodland Christmas...
we met for our art group last week and i taught everyone how to make these halloween witches. their bodies are made with wool or cotton wrapped pipe cleaners. i thought you might like to make one of your own, so today's artful thursday project will walk you through the steps to make a wool wrapped doll for you to decorate for any holiday. the basic supplies you will need to make the doll are wool roving, cotton pipe cleaners, and a paper face. for decorating you might gather bits from your little art shop: crepe paper, vintage book paper, tinsel, stamens, lace, stars, felt, anything sparkly, and some tiny trinkets. step 1. fold two 6 inch cotton pipe cleaners in half and shape into a body by twisting the two pipe cleaners as shown. my pipe cleaners are the ones really used to clean pipes made by dill's. step 2. start wrapping your wool roving on the figure in this order: arms, legs, then the body. start at the end of the hand or foot and wind your way into the body with thin wisps of wool pulled off your roving. never cut the wool fibers as they won't wrap back and catch on themselves as well. you can get some great wool roving at ornamentea. step 3. wrap wool roving around the head to finish the figure and tuck the ends around the neck. use a bit of spray sealer to hold the wool in place if you need to or i like just a bit of tacky glue smeared on my fingers to tuck in any stray bits. step 4. start designing the clothing. i made a little crepe paper skirt and glued it in place. step 5. glue on little sleeves. i used some vintage loopy trim tucked over each arm. step 6. glue on a bodice. i used a piece of halloween garland from last year. the tiny stamens are just glued in place with a black bit of seam binding tied around the middle for a sash. the sparkly tinsel is glued on top. step 7. make a little witch hat. cut out a cone shape and glue the ends together. i decorated this one with a bit of ribbon trim and a glittered star. the black paper is vintage photo album paper. add a circle base to the hat if you like. glue on your paper face for your doll and then the hat. any old photo copied onto paper will do well. my face is about 3/4 inch tall. here are the spooky girls made by some of the gals in my art group. i usually don't bother to take photos as the building we meet in has horrible overhead lights and a bad background. this time i just went for it. it was totally fun using just the stuff on the table to set up the photo. thank you my art friends for such a lovely evening! this one is by Diana and photographed on her gorgeous carpet handbag. with roller skates and a lovely porcelain head, this little witch is by cheryl. this sparkly baby with all the ruffles is by candice lori made this darling doll using a vintage jello mold! amandas happy girl holds the cutest mask... heidi was making a doll for each of her kids in their favorite costume. luke skywalker was going to be next, awesome right. this cutie by lorraine looks like she just won the trick or treat pageant amazing how each one is so different even though we started out with the same kit. this little pumpkin fairy i made for my pretty little felts book. her pumpkin is a wool bead with a bit of embroidery. hope you enjoy this project. spooky wishes, julie
The spirit of Christmas past is on me this year. I have been making these beautiful batting ornaments for my tree.There are people who collect old pressed or spun cotton ornaments, such ornaments are rare and hard to find because in the mid-1870 children were given the ornaments to play with and because of this few survive. I prefer to make my own ornaments and decorate them to my taste. I made this angel tree topper using two cds that I didn't like and a cardboard tube. I glued the top of each cd (this is the side that has the lable) to the cardboard tube on opposite sides of the tube. Then I glued a pair of paper wings to each cd so there is an angel on both sides, and I embellished it with glitter and an angel scrap or chromolithographs silhouette as shown below. I made this old style sheep, It is made of sculpey III modeling compound, wooden matchsticks(remove heads). Cotton batting, acrylic paint. For the sheep body, I worked sculpey and formed a roll, then I bent one end to form the neck and head. Then I inserted four matchsticks into the body for legs. Bake according to manufacturer's instructions. After baking I painted the head and eyes then covered the body and legs with batting, and glued with white glue. I made this batting cotton mushroom ornament. I found the instruction here Making paper angel wings To make the batting ornaments I started by cutting a cardboard body and glued two long pieces of chenille stems to the piece of cardboard. I wrapped batting around the stems and cardboard body, glueing while wrapping. Until you cover the entire body like you see in the photo. With this body you can start making an ornament, a santa, doll or an angel. For the santa ornament I used a piece of red felt and wrapped it around the body.I made a cuff by rolling the end of the felt like you see in the photo. Cut a cape like you see in the photo. I glued a piece of chenille stem around the cape edge. I cut a square from a piece of felt and glued one end to make the hat. Glue the cape and hat to body and glue a santa chromolithograph face. You can find this santa face at The ghaphics Fairy blog, and print it. I set this Christmas tree on my bedroom side table. I love it. I want to thank you for all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate it. The winner of the nine paper feather is: Lynda @ Happenstance Home Please email me your address to send your feathers. ********* I want to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year full of bleassings from above.
DIY these adorable Old World style Cotton Batting Ornaments! These darling Christmas Ornaments were created by Manuela from Vintage Savonette.
