Orange Pomander

[justwantacraft]

Yesterday my daughter showed me web sites to make these orange pomander and thought I'd pass it on as I did it last night. We bought the cloves at cost plus they were 99 cents a bag there, cloves can be very expensive in grocery stores. I used 3 bags cloves and 6 small oranges cost about a buck so the spices already had in cupboard. So its like a 4 dollar project. My daughter recomened using a bandaide to cushion your fingers as after awhile those cloves get kinda pokie. There is more advice on these three websites and here pictures my first try at this:

http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/ArtsAndCrafts/Holidays/Christmas/OrangePomander.html

 http://familyeducation.com/article/0,1120,1-4087,00.html

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/nl?ID=19006

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/justwantacraft/orangeproject.jpg


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/justwantacraft/orangeadvice.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/justwantacraft/wraporages.jpg


http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/justwantacraft/cloveorange.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a398/justwantacraft/orangesdone.jpg

So the rest of the story in 3 or 4 weeks.

[Melladh]

Oh lord, I used to do that with my mother every christmas... And man, your fingers really hurt, I'd never get to cover them that much!
We don't do all that spice stuff though, just the.. whatcha callem, cloves? Yeah, apparently so do we, after checking the dictionary, haha. And then hang the freshly pierced oranges with their cloves above the door. They smell really strongly as it is. Feel like christmas

Yours are very pretty.

[Lady Clare]

I have made 2 of these in the last month- but I prefer using apples, and I cover the entire apple so that there isn't a since bit of apple showing anywhere. That way they get preserved and last for months.

This is a very victorian craft and was quite common as an air freshener.

[lexis]

I did these too with my muma.  The smell is lovely for xmas. all spicey. The oranges get preserved too, but i've never heard of covering them for 3 weeks. We just hung them as is, and if your place is dry enough they'll go hard and get preserved over time. You can even chuck 'em in to your box of decorations and pull them out next year-
I also think martha did something like this, but she did patterns and spirals and such.
good times. 

[ladolcerita]

Yep, this was in my Brownie pack's list of standard Christmassy crafts. Good way to keep little fingers busy for a looong time! We'd also completely cover them in the cloves. Intrigued by the apple idea!

[itsnikki]

OMG! We sooooo did this when I was little. I remember my mom sitting me and my brother (my sis was too young) down at a table, giving us each an orange and telling us to stick the cloves all in it. It was something for us to do. But yeah... I did it a few years ago too, but I did designs in it, and gave some to my grandmother. I like the way you put the ribbon on that one, though. I think I might do that for our Christmas party. I was thinking of doing something that would make the house smell... Christmassy. (I may try the apple one, though. That sounds like it would smell really good.)

[hugs-n-bugs]

I would like to see what the others lok like that have been dipped in spices 3 weeks later.  I wonder if we could do this with clementines, I have a whole box of these in my fridge, my boys might like to do this.

[eloiseinmoscow]

It is pomander season now, hurrah, and they make nice holiday gifts.

Very small apples of a dense & not juicy kind are easier than oranges (or clementines) or juicy apples, because otherwise the skins get torn easily by the cloves and the whole thing gets holey. Small is good if you want to cover them with cloves because they can take a much longer time to do than they look. 

If you'd like to decorate them with ribbon that encircles the pomander then letting it dry out for a couple weeks helps, otherwise the ribbon will end up being too loose. Or, just use wire-edged ribbon on the top of the pomander, stuck in with a pin.