Lei making

On the last day of Orchid class, we made Leis from beautiful purple and white Dendrobium orchids. While Leis are ubiquitous in Hawaiʻi year-round, they're also quite popular in California and some other parts of the US for graduations, so florists get requests for them at certain times of the year.

The art of Lei making has a long tradition in Hawaiʻi, and the details and designs of some of the more elaborate Leis are amazing (take a look at these photos from a florist in Honolulu to get an idea). We made our Leis using what is probably the easiest technique of stringing the blossoms on thread one by one. While you can cheaply buy Lei needles in many drugstores in Hawaiʻi, they're a little harder (and costlier) to come by in the rest of the US, so we learned how to make our own from floral wire. My Lei held up beautifully for days, and even dried up it continued to look nice for a couple of weeks.