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| I pasted cotton batting balls to the top of my chenille stem figures and then added a variety of tiny trims to finish my Santa and snowman ornaments: a tiny bottle brush wreath, red ribbon, a small cotton batting top hat and a few red winter berries. |
Traditional chenille stem figures were wrapped with Bump Chenille stems. Each stem had and still does have four "bumps" per wire. You can make one character with one piece of Bumpy Chenille just like the vintage ones sold in old catalogs or on ebay. Most craft or hobby shops carry Bump Chenille but if you can not find it in a shop, search the internet and order it ahead of time for this easy old-fashioned, vintage craft.
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| Step-by-Step photos of twisting a chenille stem figure. |
- Cut one bumpy piece of chenille stem with two bumps and a second piece with only one. The two bumps will be the legs of your tiny armature and the single bump with be the arms.
- Position the single bump in the center of the double cut bump wire and then twist the double cut bump wire around the arms to shape the body. (shown above)
- Now your ready to paste on a tiny bead or picture for a head.
- Twist the tips of your arms where the hands of your figure would obviously be to hold tiny bottle brush trees, a miniature sack of toys, a tiny candy cane etc...
- These light weight ornaments are perfectly suited to hang for a feather tree or you can even decorate a package with them.
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| These tiny Bump Chenille stem figures will be hung from my feather tree for Christmas. |
Quick question about the wood beads: what is the size ratio and do you now where some can be found readily online?
ReplyDeleteThe beads are not made from wood but are hand crafted from cotton balls. I roll the cotton in white Elmer's school glue until it forms a stiff "bead." Then let the cotton dry and then glue it onto the cotton chenille stem body. The nose is a tiny red pom pom.
ReplyDeleteI love your designs! thank you for sharing
ReplyDelete! When you made the heads did you just roll up cotton batting?
Yes, just roll the batting between your palms and add a tiny drop of white school glue into the fibers. Then let the cotton batting balls dry. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteWith the actual vintage Santas and snowpeople, what were their noses made of in those days? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSometimes the noses were painted, sometimes a tiny faux red berry was pasted to the head. The sample snowman above holds larger berry beads in his arms. I didn't have any like these that were small enough to paste on the faces, but these are similar to the original kind.
ReplyDelete