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!
By 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
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