Our Christmas decorations, for 2022 - first thread berlingot experiments

 I spent some time considering what I wanted to do for this year's hand made Christmas decorations.  Last year, I had a blast making these scenes inside of upcycled aluminum cans.  The year before, we did wood burning and painting on wood slices.  After taking a break from making our annual Christmas decorations for a few years, it felt good to get back at it!

This year, I stumbled on a link to make "temari" ornaments - except it was not temari at all.  That is something I have made before, and we have whole bunch of temari Christmas ornaments we still use.  I found another link that called these "berlingot", which is a type of brightly coloured candy of a similar shape.  So that's what I will call them.  

After doing some experimenting, this is what I've decided to make for this year's ornaments.  After the first one I made, I ended up combining instructions from both sites and today, I made two more.

Here, you can see the first one I made, using two colours.  The cardboard I used is from empty facial tissue boxes, which limited the size I could make.  For the first berlingot, I used a 2 inch by 6 inch piece, then taped the shape together.  For my next one, I added the folding tabs, instead.  I definitely recommend using the version using tabs!  As for the size, as long as the basic rectangle is a ratio of three times longer than it is wide, it will work.  The links I found used 3"x9" and 4"x12".  If I'd had large enough cardboard, I would have gone with the 3"x9".  Anything bigger would be too large for our tree, though I think the larger sizes would also be easier to work with.

The lines were all scored with a pen, so the creases would be nice and crisp.  All the folds are done in the same direction.

This is what it looks like, after the creases are folded.  I then applied a very thin layer of glue to the tabs, using the tip of a bamboo skewer and some ordinary white glue.

This is what it looks like when it's folded together.  Once I was sure the tabs wouldn't pull apart, I set it aside to finish drying while I made another one.  By the time that one was ready to be set aside, the first one was ready to work with.

With my first berlingot, I used two strands of pink for the wrapping.  For this one, I decided to try three strands.  I have a package of mini yarn from a dollar store, and I chose pale purple, pink and black.

Doing the wraps is actually very easy, but getting them started is probably the most confusing part.  I don't know if these next photos will help, or make it even more confusing!

The folded shape has three "sharp" points, and two slightly flattened ones.  The wrapping begins at one of the flattened ones.  The thread ends would be attached where you see the 1 in the above photo.

The threads would then run to one of the "sharper" points.  In this photo, from the 1 to the 2.  From there, it wraps around the point and follows along the other side of the fold, back towards the starting point.  In the first photo, you can see where the thread would run from 3 to 4.  The thread will be crossing the starting ends in the process.  The thread then wraps around the point with the number 4, then continues on to the point with the number 5, in the above photo.

Wraps 5 follows along to the point marked 6.  After wrapping around that point, the thread follows the crease back to mark 1.  After that, you just keep wrapping.

Clear as mud, right? 😄

Trust me.  It's a lot harder to describe it, than to do it.  Once you get started, it's really obvious, and it can't wrapped any other way and still stay in place.

Here, after deciding what order I wanted the colours to be in, I used a bit of glue to fix the starting threads in place.  If I'd had some, I would have used double sided tape.  That would have made things much easier, and less messy!  Plus, I wouldn't have had to wait for glue to dry before I could go on.

Once you get going, though, you can't really stop.  An even tension needs to be maintained, so it's not like you can just put it down for a few moments, or the whole thing would unravel.  Which means I wasn't able to take any progress photos.  So here it is, fully wrapped.

I'd added a bit of fabric glue at the last point, then waited a bit for it to dry while maintaining tension.  Once it was dry enough, I threaded all strands onto a tapestry needle, and pulled them through, running the needle under the bottom layer of threads, right against the cardboard.  After the ends were snipped, I used the needle to move the threads back into place, making sure the cut ends were covered by the wraps.

This is what the "bottom" of the berlingot looks like.  When first starting the wraps, it seems like the back is left open, but all sides get fully covered in layers of threads by the time it's done.

Here is a side view of the "top" of the berlingot.  I do like how the three different colours, wrapped as a group, looks.  It is, however, harder to keep them smooth and in place, without twisting, compared to using two colours at once.

Of course, I had to try something completely different for the next experiment.  I chose another three colours, white, peacock and navy, but this time wrapped only one strand at a time, changing colours along the way.

This is the "top" point view.  

While wrapping with only one strand is a lot easier, changing colours was a real pain!  At least when using the glue.  After finishing the rounds in one colour, the end had to be glued and tucked under the wraps to maintain tension.  With the first wraps of blue, I could leave the end uncut while I did the navy, then once the navy was done, I could pick up the blue to finish off the next warps.

Double sided tape.  Must get double sided tape!

Here is another view of all three of them.

So... my thoughts so far.

This is a great, fun little craft.  They look great!  My daughter even suggested that, rather than making them into ornaments for the tree, they'd look great with just a whole bunch of them in a bowl.  They certainly would!  It would be cute to have a whole bunch in different sizes on display.

For our Christmas tree, though, more will be done with them.  They will get hangers, of course.  For the points, I want to add things like beads or maybe even little tassels.  One thing that can be done that we will NOT be doing, is adding a small bell or a couple of beds inside the cardboard before sealing the edges.  We have too many cats, and it's hard enough keeping them out of the tree as it is.  😉  However, adding some kind of noise maker inside them would be a fun thing to do.

Now, I just need to find myself some more cardboard.  Cereal boxes would be great for the 3"x9" ones I want to make, but we rarely eat boxed cereal!  I might also experiment with different materials.  With larger sizes, I might use thicker or textured yarn, instead of thread or a fine weight yarn like these minis.

This is going to be fun!