Christmas Tutorial - Christmas Door Wreath

Level                                                                                                                       Easy/Intermediate

I absolutely love the fluid, natural, open designs of the latest Christmas Door Wreaths, but have noticed over the past few weeks that many of my clients are really interested in learning how to make the more traditional Blue Spruce designs.  I've been busy teaching at a number of workshops and so, for those of you out there that are interested, here is my latest tutorial ...


You will need:-

Materials                                                                                                
A bunch of Blue Spruce (available from florists)                            
A bag of moss                                                                                    
Decorations of your choice                                                                
                                                                                                           
Tools
Scissors
Reel wire
.90 Floristry wires
1 x 10" or 12" wreath frame

Here's how to ...

Get your materials ready, you will need the moss, wreath ring and reel wire to start with.

Attach the reel wire securely to the wreath ring.

Taking the moss in both hands, form it into a 'sausage' and bind this tightly onto the wreath frame using the reel wire.

It's important to overlap each 'sausage' to make sure that the completed ring is even and compact all the way round.  You will need to pull quite hard on the reel wire to achieve this. 

Once the frame is complete and covered in moss, remember to attach a string or ribbon in order to hang the completed design.

Next, take a branch of Blue Spruce and turn it over, this is the easiest way to see where the sprigs naturally occur and will help you decide where to cut. 

Cut off all the side shoots, until you have a pile of sprigs which are of varying lengths.  This is fine, as you need different lengths for the different areas of the wreath.  Divide them into piles of longer, medium and shorter lengths. The longest need to be about 10-12cms. Make sure you use everything - the only material that goes in the bin should be the tough central spine!

Make up sprigs of foliage by placing two or more sprigs on top of one another and creating a double-leg mount.  I've uploaded a very short tutorial onto YouTube on how to - the link is

http://www.youtube.com/user/CampbellsFlowers

Using the longest sprigs first and working on the outer edge of the moss wreath frame, push the wires of the double-leg mount into the moss and bend the sprigs back on themselves to secure.  Keep working round the frame until the outer circle is complete. 

I like to then work on the inner edge of the ring, using the smallest sprigs.  Take care though not to fill in the centre of the design, its important the hole in the middle is still visible. If you can, try to work in the opposite direction from the outer edge - this creates a spiral flow through the design and visual interest. 

Continue with the medium sprigs until the whole design is complete.

Wire up the decorations of your choice, they can be anything from cones, cinnamon sticks, dried lime and orange slices or even baubles if bling is your thing! Use the double-leg mount method and secure into the foam as before.

Finish with a bow, making sure you secure it directly opposite the hanging point.

Hang up your completed design with pride!