Recently, we had a visit from Theatre of Flowers to give us a masterclass in creating Christmas wreaths!
I’ve never made a wreath before, and I was really excited to understand how they worked and to build my own!
Clemmie + Ruth from the Theatre of Flowers had set up a big room full of everything we needed to make badass wreaths, including the glasses of champagne, and let me tell you, walking in felt like I was walking into Christmas! It smelled like a Christmas Tree 🤣👌
They had set up a personal workstation for everyone, which included the basics to make the wreathes: clippers, wire and the metallic base. In the middle of the table, a plethora of greenery including fresh moss, pine and other plants that I won’t even pretend I know the name of 😅
Also dotted round the room were stations for all the wreath extras: things like ribbons, pine cones, and cinnamon sticks. We all spent some time wandering round the stations to have a good look, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I was definitely thinking ‘how the fuck does this all come together to make a wreath!?’ 😅
With Christmas tunes playing in the background, Clemmie and Ruth called us to our workstations – it was time to find out!
1️⃣ Build the base
The first step was to stuff the metallic base with the fresh moss in the middle of the table, and use the wire to bind it together, so that it stays in place! Simple enough!
The moss goes in first so you can use it to anchor all the other stuff you’re going to put into it to make your wreath perfect.
2️⃣ Gather green stuff to fill it in
Once the base was filled with moss, you’re ready to add more greenery into it! The table had so many green options, and it was down to each of us to pick what we wanted to have in it, and how we wanted to arrange it.
Clemmie and Ruth did take us through some of the more traditional options of arranging, but also encouraged us to do whatever we felt was right for us!
We used the wire to continue to bind the greenery into the moss and into the base. After this step, my wreath now looked like this!
3️⃣ Add more interest
With the greenery built up more, it was really time to think about how to make it look more exciting!
Adding more greenery, as well as some of the more exciting options dotted around the room, helped to build up the wreath even further.
My favourite things to play around with were the cinnamon sticks, berries and the pine cones! Clemmie and Ruth showed us how, with wire and pins, we could add these more bulky components to our wreathes in a stable way. Like magic!
4️⃣ Critique with friends
This was a very important part! Getting fresh eyes on your wreath so you can adjust the bits that aren’t working, or add stuff that is needed.
It is also worth making sure you look at your wreath from different angles, particularly, as Clemmie and Ruth advised, from further away, so you can see its full effect and adjust as needed!
5️⃣ Add the ribbon
The final touch to any Christmas wreath, apparently, is a festive ribbon! I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to add one or not but after seeing other people play around with ribbons, I got jealous and decided to add one after all!
6️⃣ Admire your handiwork!
I have to say, after all of that work, I was really proud of my wreath! Here’s the finished product:
A massive thank you to Theatre of Flowers for putting on this workshop for us! Clemmie and Ruth were amazing at guiding us through the wreath-making process, and we were all really happy with the end results!
If you’re looking for a Christmas activity, I fully recommend checking them out!
