hello today I'm going to show you how to make a Christmas wreath from scratch
from things that you have in your garden it's very simple to do and just takes a
little bit of time and some patience there are a couple of bits and pieces
that you will need to do this the first is a pair of secateurs a pair of
scissors some wire cutters some wire and that this is a plastic-coated wire but
you can use just an ordinary wire this is the kind that you would get for use
in the garden for tensioning between two eyelets to support plants on I've tried
using very fine florist wire for this I find that very fiddly
but you could use a fine florist wire too and the other thing you'll need is
lots and lots of elastic bands or rubber bands see if you can get a hold of small
ones these ones are actually probably bigger than I need them to be so very
small ones that even those ones are useful hair braiding would be ideal
because I wanted to make this Christmas wreath entirely from things in the
garden I've taken my secateurs outside and
cut some suitable material. if you haven't got all of these things or you
have different things in your garden then use those
to make the wreath base I've used willow and this is still got its leaves on it
but it's very simple to pull the leaves off if you don't want to use the leaves
in it you can use willow or you can use soft hazel whichever you can get hold of
and at this time of year I'm sure people be very willing to donate a little bit
to you if you just ask you'll need about four to six lengths that are yard and a
half or a meter and a bit long depending on the size of your wreath I find it
easier to use slightly thinner branches because the thicker ones are really hard
to flex ok so I've got my willow and then have a whole bunch of evergreen
materials and those are the best ones to use things that aren't going to wilt
really quickly so to make your wreath base you start by taking a length
curling it around on itself and at this stage it will be a wonky shape don't
worry about that what you want to do is make that circle about about the size
that you would like it to be and then twist to make a complete circle
cut yourself a small length of wire this will help tie it all together very
shortly so that's about five inches in length that's probably more than I need
I've got my first one so where the thicker end was that's where I'm going
to start with the next one with the thicker end and I'm going to twist it in
and I am weave it around the existing circle
it's fiddly but it will go so you're reinforcing the one that you already
have
I'm now where they where they meet that's where I'm going to start twisting
some wire around it it's just hold those in place
there we go so I think it takes about four or five lengths of window to make a
good circle so I'll continue with that and I just want to show you how simple
making this base is so that's where the two joined before I'm now going to go
opposite that for starting this piece and continue to twist it in through the
center and around the outside there is my piece of wire just by coincidence
it's at the same pretty much the same space so I'm going to carry on using
that piece if I can if you end up with the joins nowhere near the original the
original ones just use another piece of wire and already you can see this is
starting to firm up it actually doesn't matter that it's not a completely exact
circle that will come and as you're covering it then that one as I said
without the leaves to show you what that looks like if you do it with the leaves
you get a really pretty effect so I ran a workshop here last week with a couple
of friends and they're going to help me demonstrate how you do the rest of it
to cover the wreath place you need to make several bunches of foliage we using
a combination of evergreens and some dried flowers secure each small bunch
together with an elastic band these wreaths took between 12 and 15 bunches
each cut a length of wire of ice as long as your arm and thread it through the
base and twist it to secure it
this will help you why each of the bunches ons your wreath base so place it
flat you can thread the ends of the bunch into the wreath base a little bit
hold it securely and then pass the wire around it a couple of times and over it
putting it really tight to secure it to the base
and take the next small bunch of foliage and you want to use the leaves to cover
up the elastic band or rubber bands that you used in the previous bunch wire did
and then again pass the wire all around the base securing it tightly and you can
then push the wire through the base through the twisted willow or hazel just
to give it an extra lock down and continue around your wreath if you run
out of wire just cut a new piece and secure that through the base there's two
ways of doing this you can either go all the way around a Charlotte has done here
in which case your last couple will need to tuck under needs that the first
couple to cover up the rubber bands
or you can do half of your bunch is going in one direction and half going in
the other which gives the appearance of very definitely a top and a bottom and
two halves to your wreath if you do that make one final bunch and to sit at the
bottom to cover the bottom or use a ribbon once you've gone all the way
around your wreath have a little surface any gaps if there's any bits that you
want to add color to and if there are a small spaces where you want to add color
you can just wire in some berries or some other foliage and then have a look
on the inside of the wreath and see if there's any gaps where you can see the
wreath base and thread through either some foliage or some flowers into those
gaps you can't just push them straight into the wreath base and they should
stay there quite securely if not tuck them into the wire that you've wrapped
around your base
you