Wreath Making Course Review
Every year, my best friend and I have a pre-Christmas retreat to get away from the world and have a bit of peace and quiet! Amidst the avid Scrabble playing, copious glasses of wine and putting the world to rights, there is one crucial piece to the puzzle: crafting! Aside from the usual knitting and crocheting (I’m the knitter), we decided to do an actual craft course this year.
Our craft course research led us to a Wreath Making workshop, held at Hestercombe - a National Trust property near Taunton, where we were staying. We jumped at the chance to try something new, festive and hopefully gain a skill for life.
After getting a bit lost en-route, we arrived at Hestercombe, and made our way to the picturesque side hall where the course was held. Wow. The twinkly lights, lulling Christmas tunes and obscene mince pie definitely made a great first impression!
Jan Waters, the lady running the course was a professional florist from JW Blooms and capably led us through the wreath making experience. As we were a large group, there were two tables of us at either end of the hall and she would bring us together to detail each stage before leaving us to our own devices.
My Christmas Wreath!
Where: Hestercombe, near Taunton
Cost: £35
Ability: beginner or improver (some attendees had clearly been before
Learning: how much effort goes into a wreath and that having proper florist equipment such as wires, pins, wire cutters etc is important
A few top tips:
Have a mix of foliage, berries and flowers for a balanced wreath.
Always plan out your wreath; Jan gave us a bunch with a selection of foliage etc, but you need to ensure that when you are making your “bundles” up to be pinned on, you have enough to last the entire circumference.
Ensure Moss is compact and not too bulky!
Always point your bundles into the centre, alternating left to right.
Choose your accessories carefully - I went for a minimalist look, but orange segments, cinnamon sticks and pine cones are perfect finishing touches.
Jan gave us some great advice about maintaining your wreath. You can keep adding to the wreath over winter, adding in new foliage etc - especially if the birds get to the berries!
Me & my wreath!