We have a River Birch tree in our back yard and for some reason, it drops LOTS of small twigs each spring. I had been just collecting them and tossing them away for years, but I noticed they were very supple, so I decided, why not try to do something with them. So I started collecting them for a winter project.

To build the "birch balls", I started with an 8-inch beach ball. I loosely wrapped chicken wire around that and painted with splotchy brown colors that roughly matched the color of the birch twigs. I also wrapped a piece of velcro strip around the a couple of the strands of wire to use to as an attachment for hanging.

Finally, I started threading the twigs through the wire, sometimes fastening also with rubber bands, until the beach ball was completely covered. The whole thing was sort of a dumb idea but it gave me something to do during the winter and reused the twigs rather than just throwing them away.

I made a couple of them and had them hanging in trees. One of them was Crabby and since that has mostly gone to the mulch pile, the Birch Ball that was hanging in it has met its demise also.