10 Dec Sunday…with an Ultra Violet Christmas Wreath Tutorial

With the announcement from Pantone this week that their Colour of the Year 2018 is ‘Ultra Violet’, I was inspired to make an Ultra Violet Christmas wreath, and so I thought I’d share a simple tutorial…

1.Basic things you will need, apart from the plant material of moss, blue spruce, statice, sea lavender, sea thistles and rose hips ( or hypericum is a good alternative ) are pictured below:

Secateurs, scissors, florist’s wire, some string or ribbon, and a wreath frame ( there are 2 sizes shown here and the silver wire can be used to make a frame in any size ). 2. Cut about 10 lengths of wire approx 35cm long… 3. Stuff the moss quite tightly into and around the frame… 4. Use the wire and wrap it round the entire frame… 5. Take a branch of blue spruce and cut about 7 sections… 6. Start to place the blue spruce sections around the moss filled wreath… 7. Take the cut lengths of wire and thread them underneath so that you can twist the 2 ends tightly together over each section of spruce leaving the ends standing upright… 8. Once you have secured all the spruce pieces in this way, start to choose your flowers…             ( pictured below are two different shades of statice, sea lavender, sea thistle and rose hips and ivy berries ) 9. Group a few flowers together in a small bunch and then cut the flower stems to between about 6 – 10cm… 10. Start to place the flowers onto the wreath, and try to follow its circular flow… 11. Secure the flower stems with wire in a similar way to how you secured the blue spruce… ( using the fine wire helps to camouflage where the stems are attached but it’s as well to try and place them in the least obvious positions )… 12. Once you’re happy with the basic wreath, you can add the little extra bits like sea thistles and rose hips; in a sort of floral punctuation kind of way … 13. Once you have secured this second layer, hold it up just to make sure, and if anything falls off use some more wire for extra security… 14. Finally choose a piece of ribbon or twine to attach to the top of the wreath so you can hang it up… Making winter wreaths is one of my favorite parts of the lead up to Christmas; they are always so personal and you should never worry about getting them ‘perfect’.

Allowing your plant material to do it’s own thing, without interfering too much, is absolutely key to creating a natural look for your wreath, and will always make it far more unique than anything you’d be able to buy in a shop… making your own also makes you stop for at least half an hour and actually smell Christmas on its way!

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