Making dried flower wreaths

Dried flower wreaths can be especially beautiful and add that little bit of elegance to the interior of your home, or can be used as a door wreath, as you prefer. Personally I like to make them and hang them on a mirror of a buffet cabinet in the dining room or on a round wall mirror in the living room. I call these “grandmother’s” wreaths, because I choose to make them in the old fashioned way in which my grandmother made them. You will want to gather a bag full of “trimming” material, vines etc with leaves on them as well as fall flowers and lay them out to dry in a cool yet dry area, such as a garage. When your wreath making materials are completely dry, then you will be ready for the next step, the actual making of the wreath. You will want to cover your work area with newspapers to avoid messy cleanups as much as possible. I like to use a wire coat hanger as a base for this kind of wreath rather than buying a wreath base, simply because my grandmother did it this way and she taught me. You may prefer to buy a wreath base or perhaps to try it both ways to see which way you like best. You will need your wire snips and you also might want to wear gloves for this, sometimes the vines will have unsuspected “prickers” on them and getting one of those in a finger doesn’t exactly add to the pleasure of wreath making. Cut your foliage pieces, vines etc, into six inch lengths, take several of them and put them together, what ever amount looks right to you, I like to use three, then add some dried flowers to this mixture, this is called making a bundle. Wire your bundle to the top part of the hanger, next to the hook. Make another bundle and do the same thing, overlapping the first bundle so that the stems are covered. Do this around the circle of your wreath base until it is covered. The stems on the last bundle should be tucked up under the first bundle and wired in place. If you used a store bought wreath base, make a circle with the wire to hang the wreath by, then wrap and cut the wire, tucking the end in securely to avoid later injuries. If you used a coat hanger, the hook part is already there to use as a hanger so you just need to cut the wire and secure it. You may want to take this outside and lightly spray it with some sort of preservative, to hold it all in place. Some folks use extra firm hair spray for this purpose. Now give yourself a pat on the back, you have worked hard and you have made a beautiful decoration for your home.