Hand-painted & handmade Christmas decorations

The papier-mâché baubles are both. Each is hand-crafted by skilled artisans, then painted by hand, from the broad stripes to the smallest figure. The felt and beaded decorations are handmade in a different way: their character comes from stitched details added by hand, or from beads worked on by hand, rather than from paint. What they share, and the reason they sit together on this page, is that every piece is finished by hand. The small variations that come with that are expected, so no two decorations here will be quite identical.

Each papier-mâché bauble measures 7cm across and weighs around 40g, and every design is made to that same size. That consistency is useful when you are collecting them. A pinstripe, a sprig of holly and a painted figure will sit together on the tree as a matched group, however many you add over the years, without one looking out of scale beside another. Each hangs from a white ribbon, so it ties straight onto a branch with no hook needed. Exact dimensions are listed on every product page.

Keep them out of direct sunlight. That is the main care instruction for our hand-painted baubles, because strong light can fade the painted colour over time, so avoid hanging them on a tree pressed against a sunny window. Beyond that, handle them gently. Papier-mâché is light and fragile, so lift each one by its ribbon rather than gripping the body, and keep it dry, since paper does not take kindly to damp. Any dust lifts away with a light pass of a dry paintbrush before they are put away.

Yes, and the two are made to sit together. Some motifs appear in both materials, the nutcracker among them, so a painted bauble and a stitched felt figure can carry the same idea in two textures. Colour helps too. Most of the papier-mâché designs pair red with white, which picks up the reds in the felt pieces. The felt figures are flat and made to face the room, so they sit best towards the front of the tree, with the baubles carried through the branches around and behind them.