DIY Jewelled Moorish Ornaments

Above, are glamorous ornaments for a Medieval Christmas tree!

      These Moorish shaped ornaments remind me of the jewel encrusted covers found on Gothic manuscripts. My versions, however, will not cost you a king's ransom to create. These little beauties are made from recycled egg cartons, plastic gems and a bit of black paint. Use your imagination and take your time with this project. The more gems the better I think.

Above, are Easter eggs that I made using similar methods.

Supply List:

• sharp scissors
• clean egg cartons
• black acrylic paint/brush
• plastic, flat backed gems
• tacky white glue
• seed beads
• wire
• needle and thread
• embroidery needle

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut apart the geometric shapes used to protect eggs inside of their paper carton. Use your scissors to clean up the edges as well.
2. Now you will be gluing these little shapes to create your own forms for the jewelry inspired ornaments. I used a very tacky white glue for this process in order to speed it up.
3. Make sure that your forms are thoroughly dry before painting these with acrylic black paints. It is important that you use acrylics because these dry rapidly. Papier-mâché egg cartons will  slowly break down in water colors if their is too much water or in oil base paints because the oils and chemicals will "eat" through paper that has not been treated with Gesso.
4. Paste on the plastic gems where ever you like.
5. String seed bead tassels to dangle from the bottoms of some of your ornaments. Thread seed beads through some of the wire hangers on others.

Cut shapes from paper egg cartons to assemble these Medieval inspired Christmas ornaments.

Details of Christmas ornament craft using plastic gems and recycled egg cartons.

 Inspirational Medieval Design:

• Book Art - Jeweled, leather tooled, embroidered gilt  
• Medieval Jewelry from Wikipedia
• Arts and Crafts of the Middle Ages by Julia De Wolf Addison

Medieval Christmas Ornament Crafts:

• Little trinket with a brick stitch
• Stained Glass Globe Ornament
• Moorish Jewel Ornaments
  

Learn More About The Medieval Christmas: 5th to 15th Century:

• Medieval Christmas from History Learning Site
• A Medieval Christmas from Historic UK
• Seven Medieval Christmas Traditions
• Argus for the Christmas Table - was also served in the Medieval Era
• Boar's Head for Christmas? - was also popular in the Medieval Era