Hey, everyone. I wanted to share the fun little project I created this month. I was in the local Dollar Tree Store when I saw a wire wreath form. I immediately envisioned it woven with reed. The dollar store also had a great selection of fall “bushes” cattails, wheat, and burrs, and a few Christmas things as well. After making my selections, I headed to the craft store for some pretty wired ribbons and some green floral tape and wire. In all, I figure it cost about $7 in supplies for my finished wreath. And, you can weave one wreath, and make a variety of swags and bows to wire on, and in 5 minutes you can convert your wreath for each season!
Instructions: You will need a wire wreath form, and 4-6 pieces of ¼” flat reed. Start weaving leaving a short tail over the 2nd wire. In an over under pattern weave the front side only of the wreath wire. When you get to the bottom wire you will be going around it and coming up to the right of your weaving, doing the opposite as the row before it. See photo.Continue until you run out of reed. Always end and cut leaving a tail past an over reed on one of the middle wires. Then insert the next reed over the tail and under the next wire either above or below to secure. The weaving wants to go at an angle rather than straight up and down so you have to keep packing as you go. The front center of the wreath will naturally be tighter woven than the larger outside front. In the photo you can see a lot of the black wire shining through. I solved this by spray painting the other wreaths I wove with almond colored spray paint before I began weaving. (Note: let it dry and temper overnight.) The only real issue weaving this is keeping your reed wet and pliable. If you have poor quality or brittle reed, discard it. It also gets a bit hairy from drawing through so keep your scissors close to trim as you go. I like a richer color for the reed, so I bought a dollar jar of instant coffee and brought 2 cups of water almost to a boil and dumped the whole jar in and stirred until dissolved completely. I poured the “stain” over the completely dried wreath catching the coffee stain in a dish bucket, and back into the pouring cup. It easily stained all 12 wreaths, and the benefit is that they smell like coffee when you finish. This aroma will disappear after about a week, unfortunately. I am thinking about putting scented pine cones and cinnamon sticks in a Christmas wreath. I put together curved swags from a variety of silk pieces to fill the bottom of the wreath, See photo 3 above, leaving room in the middle for a big fluffy bow to add separately. Easy Smeasy!
