You'll be obtaining your materials for making kissing balls from 3 places: from nature, from a hardware store and from a crafts store. You'll probably have some of these supplies on hand, already.
I harvested the following materials from nature:
- A variety of evergreen branches
- A variety of cones from evergreen trees
- Branches of winterberry
- A pod from a locust tree
You'll need to buy a styrofoam globe from a crafts store for this project. If you can't find green styrofoam, white will do, but I recommend spraying it green: you don't want white patches poking out from behind your evergreen branches.
Alternatively, you could try to find a globe of oasis -- the spongy material florists use as a base when designing fresh floral arrangements. The advantage in taking this approach is simple: the evergreens will hold up longer, because they'll have constant access to water. But the downside is twofold:
- Oasis globes are more difficult to find.
- Styrofoam is a tougher substance: it doesn't take oasis long to break up when you start jamming evergreen branches into it!
In the picture on this page, I show other non-natural supplies necessary for making kissing balls; they are as follows:
- Top row: wire cutter and bypass pruners
- Middle row: coat hanger and gold spray paint
- Bottom row: florist's wire and plant stakes
I'll discuss these materials and supplies for making kissing balls in greater detail on the following pages, beginning on Page 3....
