#natural decoration

[balkanradfem]

How to make natural wreaths for decoration!

It's easy, doesn't take long, and you don't need that much skill! I didn't actively try to learn this, but picked it up accidentally while learning basketry; the core of the thing is, that you need to go and harvest something bendy in nature. And then you need to wrap that bendy thing around itself until it makes a round circle and you're done. You could do it with trial and error alone.

The bendy thing can be a young fruit tree branch, some ivy vines, blackberry brambles (you can take off the thorns if you run it thru some old denim!), willow branches, young peach branches, some bush branches, a lot of things work! You can check if the thing is bendy enough by bending it in circle, like in the picture below!

If you can do this with a branch, it can make a wreath. If it snaps, not bendy enough! I'm using some red branches that I don't know the name of, but they're bendy enough. Here's how you start:

At the start you’re supposed to feel dejected and confused: the branch wrapped around itself is not making a hoop (unless you’re trying to make a really small one! Then you can manage to make a circle even with just one). There’s always some point being pulled by the thicker edge of the branch, making it wonky. But not to worry!

As you keep adding branches, you keep adding strength and tension. Only thingy you might want to watch out for, is to make sure you’re turning all of the branches the same way, but that’s only to make it prettier! Even if it’s going in all directions, it will still end up being a decent wreath.

When you’ve decided it’s thick enough, you can tuck in all of the edges between the branches, so they won’t be visible, and for the ones that are thick and can’t be neatly tucked in, you cut them off! And there you have a cool wreath base! Now time to decorate it:

Mine is a fall wreath! I picked up the most beautiful leaves outside, and putting them up on a wreath makes people not be upset that you just dragged in bunch of foliage inside. I used a corn husk cord to tie them up to the hoop, so it would be all natural materials.

Now lets make one out of ivy:

Ivy is easier because it’s very bendy and pliable, and it’s not creating so much tension. You basically don’t have to do anything but keep wrapping it around itself:

I left one some leaves there for the end decoration, I thought it would look cool! But in the end I only kept the tiniest leaves, because I thought they were the cutest:

Here you can see me tucking in the end of the vine, so it would be held tightly inside and invisible from the outside. We have a little hoop!

And to decorate it, I found a bunch of white sage outside, I thought it was super pretty and durable as a decoration, it will stay the same color even after it dries! I tied it up with a cord made out of dandelion stems, and then added two more ivy leaves, and a rosehip to make it festive. I didn’t think about it while doing it, but sage, ivy, and rosehip, are all powerful medicinal plants, so this might actually be a herbalist’s wreath.

Here’s two more wreaths I made using the exact same technique, just with a bit more materials:

The first one is red branches + ivy, the second one ivy + a cord I made out of corn husk, wrapped around the entire hoop. And here’s the two we just made, in better lightning:

If you keep adding more material in, you can make those thick wreaths that you can decorate with pine branches and add candles in, for horizontal use. Have fun!

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