hi! wreathmaking is a little hobby thats really enriched my personal pagan craft, and i am hopeful with this page of info to get you started it will enrich your nonmagical or magical life too!
"okay, so like, what is wreathmaking?"
wreathmaking is binding artifical or real boughs of flowers/greenery to a wreath form, a metal circle that gives the wreath its shape! im assuming theres a 60% chance you think of wreaths and picture christmas wreaths, full of holly and poinsetta and evergreen boughs. but wreaths come in a ton of shapes and sizes and decoration for any time of the year, and, well, if you cant find one... make one!
in order to get started wreathmaking, your basic supplies are as follows:
...and thats it! now, my tip for these supplies - if you live in the US like i do, your local dollar tree will have ALL of these supplies. you can get wreathforms in a two-pack of varying sizes and good quality for $1.25, and you can also get a big ol' roll of floral tape in the same aisle for $1.25 -- one roll of floral tape will last you a whiiiiile. im still on my first roll and that was bought 3 wreaths ago!
most craft stores (i.e michaels) will have artificial flowers in singles+boughs (a bough refers to a bundle of 3-4+ flowers/'stems' etc all connected to one main ending piece of wire); again, however, i must recommend raiding your local dollar tree first. artificial flowers are often pricey as hell from craft stores, vs getting your supplies from dollar tree can net you incredibly vivid and nice looking artificial flowers for like. 1/3rd the cost. if you intend to make an artificial wreath and you DESPERATELY want it to look as close to real as possible, you will have to cough up money for the more expensive lookalikes. if youre like me, however, try the dollar tree - and honestly you can probably raid thrift stores for artificial flowers, too!
you can get twine anywhere. (its also at dollar tree, but you can find it at garden supply stores, craft stores, tbh probably bakers twine at like... grocery stores... etc) while wreath hooks are a little more pricey but also formal looking and sturdier, you can snag those bad boys at craft stores! i just use twine because mine arent going anywhere in direct high wind so like. (shrug)
wire snippers can be found at craft stores and hardware stores; you dont need anything fancy. just get something comfortable and sturdy that can snip through the thicker portion of artificial flower bough stems (towards the end, where all the segmented bits are).
okay! with your supplies in hand, some notes -
if you intend on making wreaths with real flowers/greenery, either pre-dry your boughs or be prepared to throw out all of the greenery (save the wreathform!!!!) once they die/dry out! i personally prefer to make artificial wreaths so that i can reuse them every season, but i do understand the appeal and love of real flora wreaths and encourage you to try it if thats where your heart lies; just know youll have to buy or forage more in a few months!
1. - figure out how you want to arrange your boughs before you start securing them to the form.
this helps you have a pattern to follow as you go, as well as allowing you to rearrange things if it starts not working out in advance of slapping them all on and then realizing you hate it! additionally, small (8") wreath forms will take around 8-9 boughs to fill out depending on how thick your greenery/flowers are; plan accordingly, and scale up for bigger wreaths.
2. - snip your boughs
... and wrap the exposed wire ends in floral tape. this helps save space and also ensures you (4 months down the line) wont reach up to change it out and cut the hell out of your hand. safety!
3. - consider symmetry, season, and arrangement;
that is to say, try to think about how your wreath will look like as a whole. i often look for bare spots (spots with lower greenery/coverage that may show the wall behind it, or in some cases, the wreathform), clustered/busy areas (too many flowers, contrasting flower colors, solid patches without something to break up the sameness), and seasonality (the themeing of the season, such as -- autumn will have very few flowers and a high density of leaves, pinecones, acorns, and seasonally appropriate veggies; spring will have a higher % of greenery and only a few flowers, etc). obviously, go with your heart and what makes you happy - this is just a tip for if youre trying to capture specific seasons or go for a more professional feel!
now, how to make a wreath -- this part im not even going to number, ill just outline how i do it! (note: assuming youre using artificial boughs; real boughs are similar, but may require floral wire to help anchor them. they dont really Bend, yk what i mean?)
take your boughs, preferrably pre-snipped and wrapped at the ends - but if you havent snipped them down to size i personally just do each one individually as i go, and place the very first bough you want that will be the bottom of your wreath pattern onto the bottom of the wreathframe. bend the bottom wire(s) of the bough to curve along the frame, and fan out the top of the bough (your actual greenery/flowers) to its full space.
holding the bough in place along the middle or bottom frame-loop, cut 7-8" of floral tape (guesstimating here what i average per bough), and loosely wrap the tape around the bottom part of the bough + the frame a few times before pulling it taut. this will help you not lose your mind as floral tape is extremely slippery at first; floral tape is dry before you start working with it. this tape activates and becomes ridiculously sticky as it wraps on itself and it moves, so dont worry too much about the tape feeling 'dry' -- thats intentional!
once youve got your tape started, continue to wrap it tautly along the length of the bough bottom and frame -- you dont have to go all the way up or down, but give it like a good 1-2 inches to ensure its pretty solidly secured to the frame! note: if you pull the tape too tightly, it will absolutely snap and youll have to start wrapping the piece back around itself. just keep it taut, but dont pull it with the force of like... a rope climber. once its securely on the frame, congrats! this is the basics of wreathmaking!
continue working in a counter-clockwise direction from your first bough in the same manner, snipping ends if you havent, ensuring that each bough overlaps and hides the floral-taped bare stem of the previous bough, shaping them to the frame and filling space, and securing them with floral tape when youre happy with their positioning. if you need to adjust some of your individual stems as you go (maybe you have a bare spot, maybe its just not what you wanted), you can always stop and secure the individual stem of a bough to the frame using this same method of floral taping!
you can absolutely go clockwise, but i find it way easier to ensure that the stems of each bough get completely covered and sort of magically ~disappear~ into the wreath by going counterclockwise and overlapping the actual bouquet part of each bough over the stems of the previous. once youve completely filled out and finished your frame... congrats! youre more or less done! :)
to make your new wreath hangable, i personally tie a small piece of twine into a loop, and then slip-knot (pass the loop under the top circle of a wreathframe, open one half of the loop and pass the rest of the loop through on the other side & tighten) the twine to the top of the frame. it works perfectly securely in my experience for doors and around the house, but maybe invest in formal wreath hooks if you have any sort of wind/weather concern!
armed with this knowledge, go forth! make wreaths to your heart's content! & heres a few more wreaths of mine for mabon+samhain and yuletide for inspiration :p
