I used to love going to a local craft store to buy grapevine wreaths and glue all sorts of seasonal fake flowers to them. Over time though I find it difficult to keep such wreaths nice. They gather dust m, whether inside or out; and they’re just about impossible to truly keep clean and new looking.
As I began to clean up my home, get rid of plastics and synthetics, I gravitated away from plastic decor. Removing fragrances from my home really showed me where some items were still carrying fragrance and surprisingly it was in the plastic flowers!
I can hardly step food in a craft store without getting a migraine from the candles and scented items. All those fragrances seep into everything else, including plastic flowers and grapevine wreaths.
I’ve also come to enjoy having decor that I can compost if I want to or add dried flowers to. I like the vintage charm of hanging drying herbs like rosemary or yarrow along with rustic willow wreaths tucked full of golden dry grasses, vintage rose colored yarrow, fluffy willow catkins, textured sweet corn tops, dried orange slices, purple listeria and waxy dried green buffalo berry leaves.
During the Christmas season I fill our spaces with fluffy green pine bows and rigid green spruce. These are the natural elements available to me in Northern Alberta.
What do you have? I think it’s a fun challenge not to spend money on decor and see what one can utilize from one’s natural surroundings!
Pussy willow, dried sweet corn stocks, and golden yarrow from last year.
Today I wanted to share a beautiful breezy fragrant willow wreath. Typically I make willow wreaths with the young spring willow branches before they start budding out. But this year I wanted to wait for the catkins to blossom a bit more and see if they’d stay on the willow branches as I formed the wreath, and they did!
I love the light dotted yellow from the pollen. If you’re sensitive to pollen this might not work for you. In that case, you could still make a willow wreath, just do it before the willow buds out.
You can fill it with whatever you want, even if you prefer synthetic flowers, just glue or even weave them in!
I start with some newer growth willow branches to form the wreath. Choose the most green and pliable so they won’t snap.
You could also soak them in hot water in your bathtub first. I just carefully bend and work my hands down the willow and carefully form the circle I want, holding it together with one hand, I begin adding and weaving another willow in. Cut a lot of branches because you will have some snap and those won’t work. That’s ok! You’ll get the hang of it!
You can see the first willow branch between my thumb and fingers. Now I’m placing a second willow branch in, holding it with thumb and finger and then carefully weaving that around the original willow stick and into a circle. As I’m holding the sticks in place, I turn my wreath and press it against the table to encourage the shape I want. I’m continuing to add from my first point and wrap my new branch around the wreath. I trying to strengthen the starting point to hold it together. It’s ok if a bunch of the sticks stick out. We’ll cut those later. I’m still holding my starting point and adding in the branches with the buds. Eventually the weaving of each branch will create a strong enough wreath that you can let go of your starting point but for now just keep threading in near your starting point, holding and molding the shape of the wreath carefully. I’m also taking both hands to shape the circle structure. As the first point gains strength, begin adding in new branches. I’m continuing to slowly move around the wreath, slipping new sticks in as I go around. Now it’s at a point I can let it go to see if it’s taking the shape I want. I push it down on the table to flatten it and continue to manipulate the shape with my hands. I’m carefully bending and “threading” the willow branches in and around to continue giving the wreath structure. I’m carefully using the willow to wrap around the branch groupings. You could use florist wire for this but I like to keep mine natural so I can toss in the compost if I want without trying to undo the wire first. But if you’re adding more colorful silk flowers and want something more permanent just use some florist wire. I know I said I don’t buy or have plastic flowers anymore ha ha! But I had these plastic spring flowers my mom sent me years ago to use as an Easter decoration. I kept them in my decor tote and decided to pull them out to wrap around this wreath. I’m not glueing them on, just twisting them around, again, that way I can simply untwist and toss my wreath in my compost when I’m done. I’m also tying this vintage lace ribbon onto the side. This belonged to my mom’s grandmother (my great grandmother) and she tucked it into a sewing box for me years ago. I can’t bring myself to use it in sewing or cutting it up in anyway so I just occasionally use it to tir onto wreaths or to hang a wreath and have the ribbon show. I’m just using a cotton string I looped, tied a knot and then tied a second smaller loop for hanging. Now I’m just going around the wreath and forming it better. I have this heavy wood trivet my husband made me on my kitchen table. I’m taking that and laying it on top of my wreath to flatten it into place while it dries. You could use a baking sheet and place books on it. Anything to flatten it while it dries. This will help it hold its shape and any loose sticks will dry into place. Once it’s dried, just cut the lower ends of the branches sticking out.
I hope you make your own willow wreath, they’re fun and you can do so many things with it. Hang herbs to dry, glue flowers and foliage, weave in your own dried flowers, tie a ribbon around it, add spruce or pine bows at Christmas. Any creative thing you’d like!
