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Home >> Lifestyle: Floral
Crafts:
Make
A Stunning Dried Hydrangea Wreath
By Valerie Garner
Dried hydrangea wreaths are
so beautiful and versatile in a home, and a lot of fun to make
as well.
You can either purchase already
dried hydrangea flowers from your local craft store, or you can
dry your own. The biggest trick when drying your own is the timing
of when you pick the flowers. It is best to pick them right before
you anticipate your first fall frost. If you pick them mid-summer,
they just will not dry correctly.
You can either hang them upside
down in a darkened room to dry, or you can set them in a vase
upright, even adding a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the
vase, although even that is optional. As long as they are picked
at the correct time, it’s difficult to fail with them. It’s
fun if you can, to pick several blooms from different bushes,
as it will provide a nice variety of colors to the wreath. After
they are dried, pick off any dead / discolored brown blooms.
Now, pick the type of base
you want to use for a wreath. My personal favorites are either
Styrofoam or grapevine type wreath bases. Take some floral wire
and wrap it around the wreath, then form a loop of the wire to
hang from the wall, and then wrap the wreath again. You might
try hanging it from the wall at this point to make sure it lies
correctly, and then make any needed adjustments while the wreath
is bare.
To do a Styrofoam wreath, use
a low melt point hot glue gun. Separate each bloom into smaller
florets. Hot glue each floret into the wreath base, actually
poking the stem down into the Styrofoam base. With each bloom,
space it out over the surface of the wreath, for example; a floret
at the top, next left side, bottom, then right side, then inside
the circle of the wreath, and outside of the wreath. Continue
to do this with each bloom until you fill it.
Balance is what you are looking
for. Balance in shape, you don’t want any sticking out way
above the others, you don’t want one side of the wreath
to be fuller than the other. Try stepping back and looking at
a distance and just think “balance of shape”.
The second area to look for
is balance of color. This is the purpose of doing each bloom
all over, then filling in, so you achieve that balance of color.
Give another once over to check on that.
Now, this wreath is either
finished, or you can add perhaps add small sprigs of dried baby’s
breath to it. Really depends on the look you want. Sometimes
the simplicity of only the hydrangeas is stunning.
For a grapevine wreath, it’s
the same principal but a different look. You can tie a bow on
the wreath if you want (if you do, do so before adding flowers),
or ribbon. I like to leave bare spaces on these to be able to
see the grapevine portion as well. Again, look for balance. You
can also add dried roses to it or any other type of dried flowers
or grasses too. You can get really creative with these and come
up with very different looks. Experiment to your heart’s
content.
Many times people expect dried
floral arrangements to last forever, and are disappointed when
they start looking bad after a few years. This is a misconception.
Expect them to look good for about a year, that’s really
about all they were meant to
last.
If they are in direct sunlight
it will be a much shorter time. However, the next year, feel
free to strip the old flowers off, and make another with the
same base for another year’s worth of a gorgeous hand made
wreath!
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About the Author:
Valerie Garner : Mother, grandmother
and candlemaker / owner of Joyful Designs in Soy. She loves to
write on a variety of topics with a warm, and engaging style.
http://www.joyfuldesignsinsoy.com
Source: http://www.isnare.com
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ARTICLE POSTED
NOVEMBER 30, 2005
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