Any wreath makers here?

I make wreaths almost every year! I really enjoy it.

After messing around with this and that I found that it really helps to start with a wire wreath frame. Michael's and such should have them:



Then you get some green florist's wire and just start attaching stuff. It's really not that hard.

Start with the biggest elements and then add on smaller and smaller ones.

Do they make those frames in large sizes? I'm thinking I need a something about 5x5.

Do you think an old fake tree could be used to make a wreath or am I dreaming?

What kind of things do you decorate your wreaths with?

An old fake tree could totally work, as long as you have something that could cut it into smaller pieces.

I'm sure they make 'em big. Here's some I found, they're expensive though! You could probably make something.

http://www.mainewreathco.com/cgi/supplystore/commerce.cgi?product=You_Assemble_Rings

The trick is that it should be pretty rigid, so that's the hard part.

My standard wreath is a bit smaller than yours, maybe 3 feet diameter, with a base of blue spruce. (Usually what I cut off the bottom of my Christmas tree, though sometimes I buy a plain blue spruce wreath and then fancy it up.) Trader Joe's makes door swags that are cheap, I buy those and disassemble for parts and add that -- usually holly, juniper, white pine, boxwood, etc. Usually I add some ornaments too (glass orbs, I have a variety of gold-copper ones, about 6 different tones/colors [all gold or copper but different finishes and shades] , that are all a little weathered and cool looking. I add wire to the hanger part and then attach the wire to the wreath frame).

I think I remember you have some oversized ornaments, those could look great on a huge wreath.

I also add a big bow, colors vary.

Thanks!

Those are expensive but I could probably put together something that would work.

I do have some giant ornaments but they are insanely fragile (mercury glass, maybe). I'm not sure they'd make it through the season. Plus, they're all different colors and I like your idea of choosing a color and sticking with it.

How long are the base pieces when making something 3 feet across? Do you start with really long pieces?

I'd guess maybe between 12 and 18 inches? I lay them diagonally and overlapping, then tuck the last ones under the first so it's continuous. (Not sure if that makes sense, I tried to do a drawing but this program [Open Office] isn't working very well.)

OK this is thoroughly crappy but hopefully gives an idea.



(The lines just indicate orientation of the branches, with blue spruce that spacing would fill out the whole wreath nicely, white pine would need more filler, etc.)

You need to make a how-to video!

The "diagonal and overlapping" makes sense. I wouldn't have thought of that.

So you weave it though and wire it on at the joints?

I have some A-Wreath-a Franklin LPs, if that helps?

Part of why it's hard to describe is that I'm not sure how systematic I am, I do a little of this and a little of that.

Mostly I'd just lay a bough on top and lash it to the wire frame with the green florist's wire. But if the end of a bough was sticking out annoyingly I might weave it back in.

Okay then.

Maybe I'll try to work up some kind of frame, pick up a fake tree and see what happens.

And maybe some Aretha would make nice noise while I work on it!

Boomer, you might find this site really useful, I've used a couple of their instructions for different things before, some of them are really in depth.

http://www.instructables.com/pages/search/search.jsp?cx=partner-pub-1783560022203827%3Anpr2q7v5m6t&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=wreath

I'd love to see what you come up with!

I used that site when I was making Mo's Ghostbuster costume last year. Cool site!

It looks like they have a lot of wreath making ideas. Thanks!

If it turns out decent I'll post a pic but I have not had a lot of success in this deplartment before so.....

If you have questions as you're doing it I'm happy to try to help... my methods definitely vary according to materials, etc.

I will! Thank you!

Lots of youtube vids on the subject. One guy just looped heavy gauge wire around and around until sturdy enough. The beauty of that is you could make it any size you wanted. I've made them over the years, using pine cones, eucalyptus branches, etc. My only tip -- wear gloves!