Victorian Kissing Ball

The first time I made one of these, we were decorating the mansion on the grounds of Belmont College (now university).  It was made from a cheese hoop so it ended up being about 12 inches in diameter.  This on is much smaller, only about 4 inches in diameter.

Gather your materials.  I used what I had on hand:

1 wooden embroidery hoop
artificial mistletoe
artificial greenery
15 ft spool of ribbon
24 gauge wire

Place the inner hoop crossways inside the outer hoop and tighten.  Wire into place.

Wrap the ribbon around first the inner hoop, then the outer hoop.  When you begin winding the ribbon, leave approximately 8 inches free ( I wrapped it around the metal piece at the top so my wrapped ribbon would not come loose).  Keep the ribbon taught as you wrap.  Once both hoops have been wrapped, tie off the ends.

I found it easiest to unwrap the entire spool of ribbon before I began.

Pick the decorations that you want for the center.  Wire them together and then wire to the metal peice at the top of the ball so that they hang down in the center 

Cut a peice of artificial mistletoe.  Thread ribbon thru the stem and tie to bottom of ball.

Add ribbon or greenery embellishments until you have the total effect that you want. 


Now find a place to hang it and put it to good use.


This is a fairly simple project.  It took less than an hour to put this one together.  Larger hoops will of course take longer to complete and I toyed with the idea of using metallic paint  on the hoop instead of ribbon.  I have also made these using metal hoops from the craft store.  Unfortunately I was not able to find a picture of that one.  If I come across it, I will add it to the instructable.  If you make one, please add a post.  I'd love to see it.