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Pomander: Make Your Own

Pomanders or flower balls - brings to mind weddings, festivities, children playing in the fields in summertime.

When we were on vacation in Las Vegas some twenty years ago, we had such fun doing all manner of exciting things, and getting more vacation ideas in the process. Seeing the types of decor of faraway places, like the different themes from Italy and Egypt... all there in the one spot - Las Vegas.

Many years later when we were stuck for ideas for vacations in 2005, we thought to why not check out Las Vegas again?

It was even more awesome.

The buildings were bigger, the entertainment fabulous, the decor more fantastic than we thought possible.

Armed with ideas for Perleta Magic, our idea of a vacation in Spain, we decided to have a go at making hanging flower balls (or hanging pomanders), one of the many decorations we were fascinated with in Wynn's Casino. In Spain, we checked out the prices of the materials, particularly the flowers.

Artificial it has to be as fresh flower prices are exorbitant, there's only a limited selection anyway and fresh flowers wouldn't last very long in the hot and dry atmosphere here near Alicante.

They would droop in less than an hour at our place where the sun is shining most of the time. Hmmm.

Wynns casino, Las Vegas - flower balls everywhere

Next to find a carrier/receptacle big enough to do hold the flowers. Would anything be available in the wilds of Spain to make these flower balls? It's not an easy task since the requirement is unusual, and we didn't want to pay exorbitant prices: a sizeable hanging pomander but light. Also, it can't be too fragile (tissue-paper flowers and paper lanterns were out). We wanted the flower ball or pomander to last for some time and be water-proof. Tall order, and short on supply. So, we had to create one from scratch.

We spent days experimenting with this, that and the other. The examples we've seen often use masses of tiny flower heads and usually attempts are made to arrange the flowers in a round a shape as possible.

Brightly coloured flower balls of red, yellow, and orange roses or, blue, purple, cream... if you can get the materials right, any colour of flower balls are possible. And they will look stunning hung in groups.

Jacqui with her masterpieces

My suggested way of Making a Flower Ball :-

2 plastic colanders
1 large can of expander foam (from a DIY store)
150-200 blooms (artificial flowers with strong stem, any colour, or mixture of colours)
1 straightened wire coat hanger
Long-nose pliers
Kitchen shears, or wire-cutters
Fishing wire, if you want the flower balls to be hanging in mid-air, say inside the home, from picturesque old beams
Ribbons
Hooks

Squirt expander foam into 1 colander, starting from the bottom and spiralling out to just below the rim, then add a second small spiral pyramid in the middle to about half the height of the rim (depending on the manufacturer/product you may have to do this rather quickly). Repeat with the other colander.

added info in red only if you want to make a really huge ball
I would suggest lining each half, only half-way up the sides, and a dollop in the middle - and let them expand without closing them together
expandafoam needs air to do its job properly and this avoids having an sticky blob in the middle that won't harden if you try and do it all in one go
once the two halves have cured, see if they fit together, or if some excess needs trimmed off
apply more expandafoam to one side only, spiralling out from the centre, and as it starts to rise clamp the two halves together as explained below in #2; the new foam will glue the two halves together

Allow the foam at the rim edges to expand just past the rim then carefully join the 2 halves together, using four pieces of folded up paper as small spacers between the colanders to leaving an eighth of an inch gap (about 4-5mm) to allow excess foam to escape out - secure the two halves together with strong packing tape.
Leave for two days. Trim off the excess foam and bits that have squeezed through the holes of the colander, and remove the two halves.
Find a midpoint, insert the straightened wire-coathanger straight up through the centre of the ball; end the 'south' pole of the coathanger, by twisting it 90 degrees, and then to fashion like a spiral for the flower ball to sit on.
With the 'north' pole of the coathanger, measure about 3 inches above the expander-foam ball surface and clip off the excess with the wire-cutters or shears; form the end into a loop or hook.
Now comes the creative part. Flowers - trim the stems from your artificial flowers about 2 inches below the actual flower. Push each flower into the ball.
The base of the flower head should be about 1 inch off the surface of the ball. This caters for bumpiness and unevenness - I suggest doing a circumference with flowers, like creating a ring around the ball.
Create another 2 or 3 rings, then let your imagination run wild with ideas of how to backfill the remainder.

Note the dimples from the colander... excess expander foam forced its way through the holes, and then the gap between the two colanders as it expanded then hardened (since trimmed off).

And no, the colanders weren't used for the salad afterwards.

Be warned, these flower balls look terrific, because they're so huge and dramatic. Plastic flowers look better from a distance and en masse. Once you have added all your flowers, it's time to hang your floral globe.

We've tried them out in different spots around Perleta Magic: around olive tree limbs, at the Cuban pool bar-area, from the Almudejar mosaic summer-kitchen; even on the ficus tree.

Ribbons and hooks, or fishing line for the invisible 'hanging-in-mid-air' look - and you're away. Great vacation ideas put to good use.

Ideas for Using the Flower Balls:.

hang under or around a pergola or arbour even a Corinthian rotunda for a romantic party or wedding
hang outside in trees for garden parties or after-the-wedding celebrations
hang inside the conservatory for special parties or celebrations
decorate the aisle and each pew for weddings
add colour to your guest tables, as a centrepiece
guest-book table decoration ideas for hotels and resorts
great for flower girl at weddings or at christenings
ensemble for bridesmaids for weddings
if a fantasy-themed wedding, attach to horse-carriage for olde-worlde charm

...gazebo surprise...

...lurking in the olive tree...

...splash of colour at the pool bar...

Even though I can only use one hand due to a major stroke in 1995, I can still manage to make these (see Inspiration for more info).

Comments welcome re:Flower balls.

Footnote:
Do you call a flower ball the size of a wrecking ball a 'pomander'? Pomanders are petite flower balls hanging by a ribbon, carried by bridesmaids, not industrial-size versions like the one we made: 'flower ball' fits better.

It would be interesting to see the look on a young bridesmaid's face if she was shown one of these to lead the procession down the aisle. If she could get over the shock she might say something like, "isn't it a bit big?", or, "I'm gonna need help".
.

Turn your passion into a business

Making extra flowers; with left hand only (notice my right hand looking on...)

finished product: a small flowerball

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