I have a lovely pony bead and pin ornament that my grandmother made long ago and it inspired me to try my hand at this holiday craft. All that is needed is a Styrofoam ball, straight pins, Pony beads, and patience.

Pony beads or three-cornered beads are still obtainable online, perhaps even in your local craft store. I quickly found out that my general flat head pins would not hold the bead in, so I focused primarily on using pearl head pins to affix the beads to the Styrofoam. I also picked up some crystal headed pins from a wedding supplies shop and wanted to do a disco ball like ornament but soon found that longer needle length is not a good thing in this craft. They end up competing for space inside the foam ball and eventually no more pins can be added.

These are light weight for having pretty decent visual impact and are very meditative to do in the evening.

The next set of ornaments that I tried my hand at were inspired by a picture my friend sent from an Indy shop: stuffed and beaded soft ornaments. I think the inspiration was a shinier tighter weave, but I thought felt would hold it’s shape nicely. I based my designs on the sun in honor of solar holidays like Saturnalia and Yule, celebrating the sun on the shortest day of the year. In the end, they kind of ended up looking like cookies though.

This is also a very meditative craft. I got to use up a bunch of beads in my closet and I stuffed the ornaments lightly with the felt scraps from cutting out the circles. I also put a clove bud in each one for a hint of holiday smells.