How to... get wreathy

 Our first 'how to'... which is really more a 'how we did'... 

So, here's how we did wreath-making for some friends and family on Sunday.

These are really simple and natural wreaths. Hardly any equipment required. We used reel wire but but a medium gauge florist wire would work fine, and you need some good florist scissors or secateurs.

You can use whatever you like to fill the wreath, really, but for the base we used dogwood and twisted willow; both twiggy, pretty and easy to bend!

Twist your first branch or two into a hoop and secure with wire. You can really play with the dogwood and the lighter ends of willow to create a circle. Twist the wire around your binding point, tighten, snip and tuck away any sharp endings.

Bend and add in more to build up your circular shape. Once you've built a good circle you won't need to keep binding, but can add in more branches by securing into the gaps and nooks in your circle, and loosely twisting and wrapping around your structure. There is no need to be precious about perfection with something like this. As you can see, we like it messy! Just make sure your base will be heavy enough to hold your foliage and go as big as you want.

Add in your foliage in the same way. We used ruskus. If you need to bind, bind. In general you can slot the stems in the gaps and secure just by wrapping through the structure. We kept everything going in the same direction so the offshoots and (im)perfections keep a natural direction.

Once your wreath is foliage-filled to the thickness you like, add in your favourites. We chose to add broom and mistletoe and keep the wreaths really natural and green.

Wire in your mistletoe to encourage some winter romance below the wreath, of course. 

Nothing to it.

(The wreath will dry/die, but once it has, you can whip out your foliage and keep your twiggy hoop for next time, so make it a keeper).

Merry Christmas xx