Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Copper Pepper Berry Wreath
- 3 November 2021
- click to send Christine a smile
Weave a thin wreath from your pruning or vines or willow
Book readers turn to page 284 where I discuss manipulating stems, twigs, and branches for more details. But to get you started I have also linked a Tutorial for how to weave a basic wreath below this post.
For more information about my book:
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Oh yes my favourite wire. I unravel the wire from a copper pot scrubber. There are many, many reasons why this is my favourite. One is...
... You can curl it like ribbon!
anyway...
Secure the wire to the wreath with a twist.
Book readers turn to page 37 where I described my tools, equipment and design space... and show you more about how I use wire.
Place the dried berry stem on the wreath and wind the wire around both to secure.
Add in the next berry bunch to overlap with the first and secure it with the wire.
Every here and there cut the wire and twist it on itself to secure... and let the wire end dangle. I will show you what I plan to do with that in a bit.
Once done go around again and add a second layer of berry bunches.
I loved how the wreath looked after the first layer and could easily have stopped there. But it is autumn and everything is bursting with colour- hence the second layer.
It is not always easy to see how it will look so hang the wreath to design your lush and heavy branches.
Weave in a few dangling branches every here and there to break up the wreath shape a bit.
These might appear random but it really is not. Make sure most of the heavy berry stems are supported in some way so that they do not appear droopy. I want the berry branch to look full, lush and heavy with fruit but not wilting and droopy. This is tricky! The stems that you allow to look heavy should definitely be chosen carefully.
And if you want to groom the branches and other design details once added in be careful not to damage the design. I have a tip for you about grooming delicate design details from a design in our weekly newsletter. Make sure you are signed up to receive your advance notice for when the design is ready with the tip before you click through to see the Tutorial. The sign up is below this post.
And now for the fun part: Pull the wire over the blunt side of your knife
To curl it into pretty tendrils.
And glue in a few dried autumn leaves to finish the design.
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Tutorials
For my design I wanted the wreath to look wind blown so I added a few loosely woven twigs into the weave. I also wanted to emphasize the autumn colours so I added a twirling...
The hardest part of this is actually making the tendrils. From there it's a few twists... and we are done!
Weave a wreath around a cardboard circle to create an almost lace effect... perfect to capture those first signs of Spring!
Reshape a vine wreath into smaller wreaths to combine as a pumpkin
Butterfly hair clips are the perfect little claws to help you hold tiny items in place while you wait for glue to dry
A perfect way to use a Lathyrus vine after all it flowered
This wreath is perfectly imperfect. Perfect for using those first few autumn (or preserved from last autumn) leaves.
I wanted my willow armature to hint of a web-like dreamcatcher that grows in the wild rather than being a precise replica of the traditional craft technique. But I did weave it...
Related Designs
Wire dried pepper berries to a wreath with super fancy flat wire (okay... it's the humble wire from a copper pot scrubber but it still looks fancy!)
A wire and twig permanent display basket with tiny water sources for a few fresh flowers that can be replaced as needed.
A perfectly imperfect wild willow wreath to display the first Autumn treasures of the year.
Take inspiration from a traditional Dream-catcher design to create a floral armature
Weave a wreath to thread a dome for an Autumn leaf design
Every designer knows how to stretch their supplies. We use and re-use our dried plant material until our fellow designers feel like hiding it from us. I formed such an...
A floral design snapshot of what it looks like when walking down the streets of Vancouver this week.
Contemporary Wreath Design demonstration as part of the Durbanville Garden Club's annual Garden Festival, Western Cape, South Africa