Decorating with Natural Elements

I’ve always liked the idea of gathering natural items locally to decorate for the seasons. This year, I decided to try making wreaths, and even entertained the possibility of giving some for gifts. I’d never done this before and so turned to the internet for some advice. I quickly discovered that grapevine is the medium of choice for wreath-making. Fortunately, a friend of ours had some grapevine growing on his property and was willing to share it. So, on one of the nice afternoons in November, my husband and I took our kids out to collect grapevine and other natural elements for our wreaths. One thing to keep in mind is to not chose vines that are already dead and dry or too thick, as winding them later would be very difficult. This turned out to be one of the most fun parts of the whole process! Our friend had kindly identified other potential materials that we might be interested in for our project, so we toured around his property collecting as we went. The kids were especially excited when they would come across some nice big pine cone or pretty berries to add to the collection.

We ended up with a pretty nice assortment of materials to work with, including several 10s of feet of grapevine, pine boughs and cones, juniper branches, Winter Red winterberry, Coralberry, dried Siberian Iris, and some medium-sized branches from a fallen spruce tree.

I had read somewhere that if the vines were dried out or stiff, soaking them in water would be the best way to make them pliable again. So, I pulled out our biggest cooler, filled it with water, and shoved in as much of the vine as I could fit. Most folks suggested leaving them submerged for a day or so, but I was eager to get started…so after a few hours I hauled them out and gave it a try.

It was a nice sunny afternoon so I worked outside in the driveway, also because 10s of feet of wet grapevine can be quite unruly and make a mess! The suggested technique was to make a circle about the size of wreath you are hoping for, and then continue to wrap the vine around that original circle, wrapping the smaller vine strands around the main strand as you go. This turned out to be a relatively simple and fun process and several wreaths came together in no time!

That was all I had time for that day, so a few weeks later I pulled out all the materials and went to work decorating the plain grapevine wreaths. From what I had read, most folks suggested some combination of one of three methods to attach the decorations: 1) weaving the stems or branches of any added pieces into the existing wreath, 2) using floral wire or some other kind of wire to attach items, or 3) hot glue. I tried just sticking the stems of some of the pine boughs and Winter Red into the wreaths, but either my grapevine wasn’t dense enough to trap the stems or I was just doing it wrong, because they just wouldn’t stay put! I had some wire laying around and a hot glue gun so I went to work using those instead.

All in all, my first wreath didn’t turn out too bad. I decided to take the remaining materials and arrange them in a large metal pot, along with a few more pieces, on our front porch next to the snowman. Overall, I learned a lot in the process and still really like the idea of gathering and making my own decorations rather than buying premade items. In addition, it turned out to be a fun way to spend time outside and work with natural materials with our kids. In fact, Bur Oak Land Trust properties might be just the place to look for inspiration and supplies next time!