Deer Hunter Ornament

My passion for hunting and fishing led me to create these beautiful ornaments. Since my children have now grown and no longer care if their 1st grade ornament is displayed prominently on the front of the tree, I chose, for the first time in my life, to decorate the tree the way I wanted it. Corrugated deer heads, wooden snowflakes, crocheted stars, burlap balls, all that is rustic and natural graced the branches of my tree. But something was missing.

A few years ago I had purchased a small set of resin antlers and hung them on the rear view mirror in my SUV. This summer, the sun finally dried the jute rope from which they dangled and the antlers came crashing down. I had laid them on the shelf in my living room and left them there until I could find time to replace the rope and rehang them.

As I stood there eyeballing the tree, I noticed those tiny antlers laying on the shelf behind the tree. I picked them up and carried them to my craft table where I dozens of hand-painted ornaments lay drying, preparing to ship out to a shop on South Padre Island, TX. I picked up a piece of glass that lay in my designing stash and found that it seated quite nicely into the antler, almost as though it were meant to sit there.

That's when inspiration struck. I slipped out the front door and started cutting branches from a tree that were lined with tiny berry looking buds. Then I went down to the basement and began digging through my treasures retrieved when hiking the mountains and the back side of the rez. I pulled out some shell casings that I had collected and returned to my craft table to design.

I hung the first completed ornament on my tree and photographed it. I posted my beautiful new creation on FaceBook and a friend asked the pricing. So I posted it for sale on Etsy and within a few hours, my first ornament sold. So I created another.

To this day, my tree STILL does not wear even one of these ornaments because they are selling faster than I can make them.

I hope you love your new ornament as much as I enjoy making them.

Ornament can be personalized with name and year.


Due to some breakage issues during shipping, some assembly is now required.

We are going to be shipping the shell casings that belong inside the glass ornament, in a separate baggie inside the box with your ornament order. This will prevent the shell casings from rattling around inside the glass and cracking it during shipping.

When you receive your ornament, gently lift up the bells and insert the shell casings inside of your ornament. Be careful not to push them or drop them hard into the glass as it is VERY fragile.

THESE ORNAMENTS ARE MADE OF FRAGILE GLASS - NOT FOR USE AROUND CHILDREN - PLEASE HANDLE WITH CARE