We are well and truly in the middle of wreath making madness - having spent 4 days last week doing nothing other than wreath making ready for Christmas we are having a non-wreath day today. Instead we are potting on some of our autumn grown seedlings as they've got a bit too big and now need their own space. So instead of having our hands in buckets of cold water, we're having a change and sticking our hands into not quite so cold compost.
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| A selection of our small 12" wreaths |
On the wreath front, we've made a number of different designs - all of which are made using purely natural materials apart from a bit of wire now and again to hold everything in place. Pine cones are very difficult to tie onto a wreath without the use of some wire. We've tried everything from raffia to twine to string and back again. Nothing holds them in place. So, we have to use very thin florists wire. Which is a shame as it would be lovely to be able to just chuck the whole thing on the compost heap when it's finished and Christmas is over. However, we're still on the look out and search for something which will do the job just as well as the wire but is compostable, so if you know of anything the please drop us a line.
Apart from a small amount of (unavoidable) wire all of the materials in our wreaths is natural. Even the ribbon is made from Cotton, Viscose or Jute/Hessian. Non of the little parcels on sticks, plastic baubles or Polyester ribbon for us, no sir'eeee. Not that we're 'anti' the other sort of wreaths, it's just that they're not for us.
As you can see most of our wreaths are approximately 12" in diameter. Reason being, not many people have huge front doors nowadays that can take one of the whopping +18" wreaths that you see for sale in many shops at this time of year.
For those of you that live in flats or don't have a front door which can take a wreath then you could always use a wreath as a table centerpiece. They look really festive placed in the centre of a table with a candle or a few tea lights placed in the middle of the wreath.
On the farm front.... the farmer has been busy moving his sheep up onto the top of the hills. Unfortunately, a neighbouring farm has had 10 ewes/sheep killed and/or mauled by dogs over the last few days. So as a precaution all the sheep are being moved as far away as possible.
Had best go put something on for lunch and get back to potting on for a while. Where's my dibber gone!
Cheerio
Cathy
www.breconblooms.com
Dear Cathy, How very beautiful your Christmas wreaths look. Both imaginative and artistic, one would certainly want to find a door [or as you say, a table] to put one on as they are so pretty. I very much like the idea that they are made from totally natural materials and hope that a solution to the florist wire can be found in due course. Situated as you are in such a dramatic and unspoilt area of the country, it is so good to be principled in the use of purely 'green' materials.
ReplyDeleteAnd, thank you so much for becoming a 'Follower' of my weblog and for leaving such a nice message. I am so pleased that we have found each other in the labyrinth of Blotanical and look forward to sharing ideas in future postings.