Handmade Christmas wreath
- BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
Published: Thursday, 18 November 2021 at 9:00 am
Designer Shilpa Reddy shows how to create a beautiful festive wreath
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This blue-green wreath with hints of gold uses foraged English ivy, cones and eryngium. Gold accents were added with spray paint.
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Start by gathering your materials. See what you can find in your garden or buy in garden centres and florists. Use moss from your lawn or buy sustainable carpet moss online. It's best to wear gloves if using thorny plants.
You Will Need
- Double wire wreath wring (30cm or 35cm)
- Scissors
- Florists' wire, Both straight pieces and on a reel
- Sprigs of evergreen foliage, Conifers such as pine and spruce work well
- Ivy with berries
- Moss from the garden
- Decorations such as berries, cones and eryngiuims
- Water-based spray paint (gold and blue)
Step 1
Tie one end of the florist's binding wire (on a reel) to the outer ring of the double wrath ring. Take a big handful of moss and attach it to the front of the ring by wrapping the wire around it and the ring. After one wrap, take more moss and wrap that in place too. Do this all the way round the rind. Don't cut the wire yet.
Step 2
Trim your greenery into hand-length pieces, ready to add to your wreath.
Step 3
Use the colour spray at this point if you wish, to add accents to leaves or other decorations such as pine cones. Leave to dry for at least 15 minutes.
Step 4
Make bunches of foliage, with larger leaves as a base and more delicate pieces at the front. Attach the first bunch to the front of the wreath, over the moss, by tightly wrapping the wire around the base of the bunch, then around the wreath ring several times.
Step 5
Keep adding bunches in the same way. Make sure the foliage of your second bunch overlaps the bottom of the first bunch. Add enough bunches so the entire base of your wreath ring is covered.
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Step 6
Add decorations, such as cones, by winding straight lengths of wire around the lowest open part of the cone. Twist to secure the wire. Then pass the two ends of the wire though the wreath from front to back. Find the wire ends at the back, pull the decoration tightly in, then bend the ends back into the wreath.
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