Jute Twine Spheres

I am always looking for cheap ways of doing things I see that stores want a lot of $$$ for and I made this small jute twine sphere yesterday.  The large one in this photo is made from a grape vine and while I love it, I paid too much for it.

Here's what you need to make them:  Twine, balloons, school glue. Dollar store! 

Another variation on the glue part of this project I found is to mix corn starch and water in equal parts, then mix that with the school glue until you get a not too watery consistency.  For the one I made, I just used school glue and called it a day.

You're going to want to put down a plastic garbage bag because this gets messy.  You're going to want to wear thin latex type gloves if you don't like sticky hands.  If you have kids that like to play with goop, they will have fun with this and it will keep them busy while you work instead of pouring dish soap on the floor while your back it turned.

Blow up a balloon to the size you want.  Pour your glue or glue mixture into a bowl.  Coat your twine with the glue.  I did this by scooping up dollops of the glue between my pointer finger and thumb and then running the twine though those fingers.   I found that the best way for me to make the twine look random was to coat a lot of twine, then wrap it around the balloon all willy nilly.  When I coated the twine just few inches at a time and wrapped it right away, it looked as though I was trying too hard (and failed) to make it seen natural and random, it just didn't look as nice. Do what works for you.

When you have finished wrapping, tie the knotted end of the balloon onto twine and hang to dry for 24 hours.  If you have cats, well, let's just say that if they can reach it, you're going to have sticky floors when they're done playing.  Same for small children I guess.

After it dries, pop the balloon and remove it.  You may have glue 'skin' in some of the open areas and you can remove those with a toothpick.

I have seen these spheres used as pendant light fixtures by installing a light kit (very, very awesome) and hung from ceilings in a grouping, and hung from trees for an outdoor wedding party too (gorgeous done in white twine). Different sized spheres arranged together on shelving, mantels, wherever - is a nice and cheap way to fill in spaces that need something simple.