About
The Crafted Garden
Dried flowers are fantastic for natural crafting. One of the problems with fresh flowers – particularly in the heat and strong sunshine of summer
– is that they can wilt, even when arranged in water. The need to display fresh cutting material in water can also be quite restrictive if you want
to create certain projects. Dried flowers however have been preserved and so have no need for water. This means they can be used in all sorts of decorations from posies and wreaths to headdresses and buttonholes.
They are also ideal for weddings and parties because they can be made
up in advance, with none of the last- minute panic of picking and arranging fresh flowers.
Use grasses to cover the base of your wreath and create a backdrop for a selection of dried flowers such as larkspur and seed heads such as poppies.
Although wreaths are synonymous with Christmas, there is no reason why they cannot be used as charming decorations throughout the year.
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Key West Witch favorited Dried Summer Wreath
29 Jun 09:41
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Pam added Dried Summer Wreath to Hobbit Hole
08 Nov 19:34
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Kitty favorited Dried Summer Wreath
04 Jul 04:45
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Ilana M. favorited Dried Summer Wreath
19 Jan 00:04
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Maladignia added Dried Summer Wreath to Victorian/Steampunk wedding
06 Jul 13:29
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Rebecca M. favorited Dried Summer Wreath
11 Jun 14:05
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Starr D added Dried Summer Wreath to Yard & Garden
16 Oct 16:02
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Starr D favorited Dried Summer Wreath
16 Oct 16:02
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Cat E. added Dried Summer Wreath to Lauren Conrad
09 Oct 17:05
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Alissa B. favorited Dried Summer Wreath
07 Oct 18:54
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Step 1Making the base
Have your wire cutters and reel wire ready. Grab a handful of
straw or raffia and compress it together with your hands. You want the piece, a bit like a straw sausage, to be 3–4cm/11⁄4–11⁄2in thick and 15–20cm/6–8in long. Start to wrap around the straw with the reel wire. Make sure the wire is wrapped tightly as you work and that the wrappings are about 2.5cm/1in apart. -
Step 2Forming the wreath
Keep adding more straw sausages and wrapping them with the wire,
to form a longer piece. Bring the
two ends together to check the circumference and keep adding straw until you reach the desired size for your wreath. Remember, the bigger you make it the more plant material you will need to decorate it. When you have reached the required circumference, join the two ends together, overlapping slightly and keep wrapping with wire. Continue one time around the whole wreath
to secure and then snip off the wire. Your wreath might look a little misshapen so gently mould it into a circle and tuck away any loose bits of straw or trim away. -
Step 3Wiring in the flowers
Rather than attaching individual flowers, which would be fiddly
and take up much more time, gather together small clusters or little posies of flowers, grasses
and seed heads – how many will depend on the size of your wreath and the material you are using,
but the posies shown had on average fourteen stems. You want your clusters to cover the wreath base but not be too big. Using the florists’ wire, wrap the stems tightly together, then trim the stems so
that the posies are each about 20cm/8in long. Place each posy on to the wreath at an angle and wire into place. Continue
this process using subsequent posies to cover the stems of the previous one until your wreath is covered. If you can still see some bare patches you can poke in extra stems of grasses, seed heads or flowers. -
Step 4Attach a loop of twine, ribbon or hessian to the top of the wreath so that you can hang it.
