How to Make Palm Crosses

I grew up attending a large Episcopal Church in Southern Florida. Every year, the week before Palm Sunday would be all hands on deck to make enough palm crosses for the congregation. All that experience has come in handy, since I now seem to be the go-to person for teaching how to make palm crosses at my current church. For the benefit of my “students” (who would probably appreciate it if I didn’t get flustered and skip a step halfway through the process), I’m posting a step-by-step tutorial for making palm crosses.

This is VERY image-heavy, but I've found that the more detail I give when making these, the better. Kudos to my husband for taking the pictures (with my new camera, which we haven't quite figured out how to focus, apparently).

 

 

Step 1: Step 1: Material

If your church doesn’t already have a supplier, just do a Google search for “Palm Fronds for Palm Sunday”. The fronds come pre-cut and bound into sections like the one pictured. They dry out fast, so keep them in the refrigerator (NOT the freezer). If they start to look dry, put a wrung-out damp paper towel in with the fronds. The same storage tips apply for your finished palm crosses.

Comments

[Phil B]

Thank you for a very timely Instructable.  I did not notice the focus problems you mentioned.  If you are having problems with focus, pressing the shutter a bit slowly gives the camera time to do the focusing. 

[Fandragon]

Thanks for the tip! I think the main problem was that we were trying out one of the macro settings for getting up-close shots. It didn't quite work out, so we'll probably have to use the simpler settings next time.

[fegundez1]

great Instructable, I have tried to make these a couple of times but no one I know could figure it out! Your camera seems good to me, one thing you might try though is using the macro setting when you do close up it looks like a little flower on most cameras.