Sugar is a perfect ingredient to harden string or yarn in any shape. It is mainly used for starching crochet projects. But it’s also an easy technique for making ball ornaments that can be great decoration pieces, even for Christmas trees.
Tools and Materials
The ingredients list is relatively simple and easy to come by.
You will need the following:
- Sugar
- Water
- Pan to heat up the sugar syrup
- Cotton string / yarn / thread (I used perle embroidery thread)
- Small balloons
Instructions
1. Make the sugar syrup
- Measure equal amounts of sugar and water.
- Mix them in a pan.
- Heat the mixture to almost boiling while stirring it continuously. It should not be actually boiling and all the sugar should nicely dissolve.
- Set it aside to cool down.
2. Prepare the balloons
While the sugar syrup is cooling down you can prep the balloons.
- Inflate them to a desired size and shape and tie them securely.
- Hang them up (Since everything will be sticky it is better if they are already hanging.)
- Place some protection underneath like a tray or old newspapers.
3. Wrap the balloons
- Immerse the thread in the sugar mixture.
- Make sure it’s drenched and it’s soaking up the syrup, to have the finished product harden evenly.
- Wrap the soaked thread around the balloons.
- While wrapping, try to remove the excess syrup by squeezing the thread. This way the bottom of the ornaments won’t end up being too sugary.
- It is important to soak the thread first and then wrap it on the balloons, because the other way around, the thread won’t soak up enough sugar, and there will also be some sugar residue between the threads.
4. Let them dry
- Let the ornaments dry.
- Put something under them because they are going to drip a little bit.
- It can take a long time, like several days, for the sugar to dry and harden entirely.
4. Remove the balloons
- The final step is just to poke a hole in the balloons and remove them from the inside of the ornaments.
