Ornament Cap and Spring Wire Design

Ornament Cap and Spring Wire Design

Craft Tip on Selecting the Right Ornament Cap for Your Project

Some ornaments featured on this site require glass balls equipped with a certain style of ornament cap and spring wire. For these ornaments, the cap needs to have grooves to house pipe cleaners, and the spring wire needs to be sturdy and have plenty of tension to securely hold the finished ornament together.

This arts and craft tip pertains to the following handmade ornaments:

Christmas Spider Ornaments | Frog Christmas Ornaments | Halloween Bat Ornament | Halloween Spider Ornament | Frog Ornaments | Garden Spider Ornament | Bee Ornament

Below are photos of the ornament cap and spring wire combo I recommend for making these ornaments. (I painted the spring wire green to show up better in the photo.)

Ornament cap and spring wire. Picture of ornament cap

Many ornament caps do not have separated grooves. Such caps simply will not work for making these particular ornaments. Cutting your own slots would weaken the cap. So choosing a cap that already has grooves is very important.

These ornaments also require a sturdy, well-tensioned spring wire to securely hold the completed ornament together. Shorter, thinner wires with less tension simply are not up to the task.

Ornament cap and spring wire. Picture of ornament cap spring wires

The photo on the right compares the spring wire I recommend to a different style of wire from a cap frequently found on glass ball ornaments sold in craft stores. The farther apart the prongs are, the greater the tension will be because the prongs must be pressed together when the wire is inserted through the opening in the top of the cap. As you can see, the spring wire on the left has a lot more tension.

Unfortunately, you may have trouble finding glass balls with this particular cap and wire. The only place I have found them in my neck of the woods is Michael's in Overland Park, Kansas.

I have looked online and have not located any other source for these particular ornament balls. (Michael's does not sell them online.)

I also have searched for suppliers of just the caps and wires. There are websites that sell caps and wires, but I have not found one that offers this particular style (based on the photos appearing on those webpages).

So my advice at this time is: If you want to make these particular ornaments, hold off until you find glass balls with grooved caps and sturdy, well-tensioned wires. Then buy up a bunch of them in different sizes so you have them in stock!

That's what I do. Michael's does not start stocking these glass balls until the months just before Christmas. Therefore, I stock up on them at that time to ensure I have plenty on hand throughout the year.

When I locate another source or find another suitable ornament cap and spring wire design, I will let you know! And if you happen to find some, please let me know. I'd be much obliged!

For more arts and crafts tips, please see Craft Tip and Technique Page.

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