How to Make Palm Fronds

Palm fronds are beautiful decorative arrangements that can be made into elaborate arrangements you can place in churches around Easter. You also can use them to prepare religious decorations in your own home. Make palm fronds out of different types of palms, such as Queen, yellow or cane palms.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Palm leaves
• Floral wire

1. Place the palm with the underside facing upwards and the stem pointing toward you.
2. Do a three-plait. Take the top 3 strands, move the left strand toward the middle one and then take the right-side strand into the middle.
3. Pick up a new strand on the left, move it into the middle. Continue with a new right strand, then a left one and continue in this fashion.
4. Repeat this plaiting process all the way down until you run out of strands.
5. Tie the remaining strands together and bind them with floral wire.
6. Dry the plaited palm. Lay the drying frond flat or in any shape you choose. There are a variety of designs for palm fronds. For example, you can find instructions for palm frond art at Hackingfamily.com (see Resources below). Go to Floral Art Mall to see a finished palm frond arrangement (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• After drying, you can spray paint the palms or decorating them with other palm fronds or flowers.
• Palms are often used at Easter as symbols of peace and reconciliation. Consider giving your palm frond to someone with whom you've been quarreling.
• Avoid using palms that are too dry. Moist palms are easier to handle.
• There is a difference between using single palms and entire palm leaves. It is the palm leaf that you will be making into a frond. The frond arrangement will not work with a simple leaf.
• Palm leaves may be difficult to come by, especially during certain times of the year. If you aren't able to purchase palms from florists, ask your church to suggest sources.