Glass folklore · Handblown in Kreuzwertheim
The Witch Ball
For three centuries, people have hung spheres of coloured glass in their windows — to gather the light, and, so the old stories go, to catch whatever else might try to come in.
First things first
What is a witch ball?
A witch ball is a hollow sphere of blown glass, traditionally hung in a window to protect a home from witches, evil spirits and ill fortune. The custom is documented in England from the eighteenth century onward and is probably older. Most early examples are blue or green, and many carry a tangle of fine glass strands inside — the trap, folklore says, in which a wandering spirit would lose its way and stay caught.
Strip the superstition away and something remains that never depended on belief: a sphere of saturated colour that takes in daylight at one angle and gives it back at another, slightly changed, from morning to dusk. That part we can vouch for. It is also the reason a three-hundred-year-old charm still earns its place in modern windows.
Folklore & history
A short history of catching spirits
The witch ball belongs to a large family of domestic charms — horseshoes over doorways, hagstones on cords, bottles buried beneath hearths. People protected the openings a house cannot help having, and a window was the most beautiful place to do it. The sphere's own chapter reads like this:
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17th–18th century · England
Glass against misfortune
Written references to witch balls survive from the eighteenth century onward, though the practice itself is likely older. The spheres hang in cottage windows and above doorways; in coastal villages they fold into the sea's own superstitions, where glass, nets and luck are already close relatives.
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18th century · The charm's logic
The coloured trap
The mechanism is beautifully literal. Bright colour was said to draw a spirit closer; the strands inside would then hold it the way a web holds a fly. Blue and green predominate — the colours the early glasshouses produced most richly, and the ones the light rewards most in a window.
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Early 19th century · Bristol
Nailsea
Many surviving witch balls — striped and spattered with enamel colours — are attributed to the glassworks at Nailsea near Bristol, though they were blown all over England. By now the sphere is as much ornament as amulet, and glasshouses make them openly rather than on the side.
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Mid-19th century · A new surface
Watch balls and silvered glass
The name itself may be a corruption of the older term watch ball. From the mid-1800s, makers silver the inside of the sphere: hung in a room, it reflects the whole space like a convex mirror — a small, decorative way of keeping an eye on things. Set on a pedestal outdoors, the same ball becomes the garden's gazing globe.
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19th century · Across the Atlantic
America takes up the form
From the nineteenth century, American glasshouses blow witch balls of their own, and the sphere settles into porches and parlours far from the villages that first hung it. The old meaning travels lightly; the glass does the rest.
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Today
A quieter meaning
Nobody needs to believe in trapped spirits to hang one. The witch ball has settled into what it always also was: handblown glass doing quiet, daily work with light — and one of the more storied gifts a person can give.
From our workshop
Breath, colour, and a web of glass
Every witch ball leaves our workshop the way witch balls have left workshops for three hundred years: through breath. A gather of molten glass on the pipe, colour worked into the mass, then air — steady, unhurried — until the sphere finds its size and settles into itself.
Ours are blown by Rolf Schrade in our family workshop in Kreuzwertheim, Germany, where glass has been the family's material for generations. Inside each sphere grows an organic structure of glass — the descendant of the old spirit trap. It forms while the material is still moving, which means it forms differently every single time. No two webs tangle alike; the sphere you hang will exist exactly once.
- Handblown, one of a kind
- ≈ 9.5 cm diameter
- Hook included
- Red · Blue · Multicolour
At home
A place by the window
Tradition is specific about where a witch ball belongs: in a window, close to where the house opens to the world. We would only add — choose the window whose light you actually live with. Facing east, the sphere works with the morning; facing west, it saves its best hour for the evening. Hung from its hook on a length of cord, it turns slowly on the air a room naturally moves, and no two minutes of it look quite the same.
We make no promises about spirits. What we can promise is the glass: its colour, its weight, and the way it behaves in the light — every day, without being asked.
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01
Hang it securely
Use the included hook and a cord that holds a knot well. Check the fixing now and then — glass forgives a great deal, but not the floor.
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02
Dust with a soft, dry cloth
That is the whole ritual. For fingerprints, a barely damp cloth followed by a dry one brings the surface back to full clarity.
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03
Let the light do the work
The sphere needs no polish, oil or cleaner. Daylight is the only maintenance it was ever designed for.
Questions & answers
Witch ball FAQ
What is a witch ball?
A witch ball is a hollow sphere of handblown glass, traditionally hung in a window to protect a home from witches, evil spirits and misfortune. The custom is documented in England from the eighteenth century onward; many spheres hold fine glass strands inside, which folklore describes as a trap for wandering spirits.
What is the difference between a witch ball and a gazing ball?
A witch ball is coloured or internally structured glass, hung indoors — usually in a window. A gazing ball is its mirrored descendant: from the mid-nineteenth century, spheres silvered on the inside were set on pedestals in gardens, where they reflect their surroundings like a convex mirror.
Do witch balls really work?
Folklore says they catch misfortune before it can enter the house; we leave that between you and the eighteenth century. What a witch ball verifiably does: it gathers daylight, colours it and returns it to the room — reliably, every day the sun rises. Many people simply value it as a handmade object with an unusually good story.
Where should I hang a witch ball?
Traditionally in a window — the place the charm was made for and the place the glass looks best. An east-facing window gives it the morning light, a west-facing one the evening. Any bright spot where it can hang freely and turn works well; use the included hook and a secure cord.
How do I clean a witch ball?
Dust it with a soft, dry cloth. For fingerprints, wipe with a barely damp cloth and dry it afterwards. It needs no cleaning agents, polish or special care — the surface is glass and asks only not to be dropped.
Is a witch ball only for Halloween?
No. Historically the witch ball was a year-round household object, not a seasonal decoration — it hung in the window in January as surely as in October. Its story makes it a favourite autumn gift, but the glass keeps working with the light in every season.
From the workshop
Take one home
Witch Ball — Handblown Glass Ornament
Each sphere is blown individually and carries its own inner web — the one inside yours will never be repeated. Delivered with a hook, ready for the window you already have in mind.
View the Witch Ball →- Encyclopaedia Britannica — “Witch ball”: origins, colours, Nailsea attribution, watch-ball etymology.
- Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle — “A History of the Witch Ball”: watch-bottles, witch-watchers and regional traditions.
- Homes & Antiques — “The mysterious history of witch balls”: collecting, silvered spheres and gazing balls.
- Wikipedia — “Witch ball”: overview of folklore, sea superstitions and American production.