Wreath Making
Wreathmaking is one of the most rewarding experiences for both the wreath maker and all those that have the pleasure of seeing the results. Gathering material for your wreath is part of the fun. A walk in the woods or a stroll through your garden, will enable you to bring back the bounties of nature that will adorn your wreath. Once I discovered books on that taught me how to make wreaths with herbs and everlasting flowers, books on wreaths I was totally hooked.. Now I have a workshop full of boxes of cones, pods, berries, dried flowers, and even sticks (of course they are special sticks with lichen on them). Once you have gathered the natural materials that you want to put on your wreath, you now need to collect the correct tools. The essential tools for wreath making are: - Wreath base made of grapevines, straw, foam, wire ring, or pre-made. Tip In a pinch you can make a wire ring out of a wire coat hanger.
- Paddle or spool wire usually found in 24 guage
- Garden clippers
- Wire cutters
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun may come in handy, but you can use regular or tacky glue (which dries faster) if you don't have one.
- Wooden picks found at most hobby shops. These have wire attached and make it easy to wire stems and pine cones to your wreath.
- Floral tape
- 20 guage florist wire
Design Ideas For Wreath
Assembling your wreath bases, herbs, flowers, and pods is just the beginning. Putting them together in a pleasing way is the next step.It's really not that hard. You can just experiment until you get a design you like. If you are needing a little inspiration, look through magazines, books on wreaths, home decorating catalogs, store displays, or even just google the word "wreath" and you'll find more than enough samples. Once you find something you like, you can make a quick sketch of it and write down the types of materials used. Have fun and experiment. Some of the most beautiful designs come about this way. You may choose to have long, trailing branches or berries trailing along the edge of your wreath and flow toward the floor, with clusters of pine cones, pods, or dried flowers placed around the circumference. Just be sure to keep in mind the scale of your finished wreath. Be sure it will fit on the door, wall, or fireplace on which you intend to display it. Also be sure that the parts of the wreath blend and are pleasing to the eye. Be sure the shapes and objects work well within the proportion of your wreath. If you are still short on inspiration, keep these design techniques in mind: - Sectioning This option lets you mentally divide the base into three parts: the inner circle (the "doughnut hole"), the outer circumference of the wreath, and the face. Fill each space separately and once finished, you'll have a lovely wreath.
- Angles Here you want to consider the angle at which you're attaching materials to the base. one choice is to insert all your materials at the same angle, creating a kind of spiral effect around the base as seen on this magnolia wreath.
- You can also place flowers at different angles as seen on this magnolia wreath below.
- Line With this technique, add a straight line here and there. If the base is mostly just round, add strong vertical and horizontal lines by adding linear flowers such as lavender, yarrow, bee balm, or celosia to one of the areas of the wreath.
- Color Have a basic color scheme in mind before you start. Having the same hues of the same general intensity such as pink peonies on a silver artemisia wreath base or strong contrasting colors such as yellow yarrow with purple globe amaranth on a mountain mint wreath base.
For the latest information on decorating from your garden, please sign up for our newsletter. This is the easiest way to get the updates from our web site.
If you have a hobby you love and want to know how to have a profitable web site (no computer knowledge required) just by sharing it with others, then please click on the following link.
Click here to learn how to build your own web site.
Return to Home Page From Wreath Making
|
