‘Easter Friday wreath inspiration from forest goods’

Easter is the stepping stone to warmer days and letting spring come to the start of bloom here in the Nordic countries. I love the feeling when the snow melts away and birds have come to life after a long winter. Butterflies are flying around and it seems that we are so much closer to summer again.  My hubby and I decided to take a spontaneous four day trip to our countryside as my parents were there as well to celebrate Easter. We had been there a few weeks ago and it is incredible to see how much the snow melts away, when days are incredibly warm. We seem to be really lucky the weather! The yard is stripped from snow and the dry ground feels lovely underneath, showcasing all it’s blossoming goods.

My mom and I decided to make an easter wreath for a bit of inspiration from forest materials. We wanted it to look delicate, pale in colour, use lots of hay from near the lake, dried flowers and something that resembles a bit of a bird’s nest. There were so many willows along the side of the road as me drove to the countryside, all blooming in the heat of the sun.

 Easter Wreath Guide

• Make the base for the wreath with “thick” florist wire so it holds the wreaths shape. You can make it as large as you want, just make sure the wire is thick enough to hold all the material that you will attach to it. You need thick florist wire and thinner florist wire.
• Collect material from the forest, use lots of different types of hay, pussy willows, dried flowers and what ever really inspires you and adjust to your surroundings. We wanted the wreath to look almost colourless, thus I chose materials with an oat hue to them. We found dried flowers, hay, willow. I also think the wreath would have been beautiful to decorate with small natural soft coloured feathers or sprigs that are just starting to bloom with tiny leaves on them.

• Don’t be afraid to be imperfect: You need to begin somewhere with the wreath so start with lots of hay. Since hay is delicate but very bendy, just take a bunch of it and wrap it around the base and seel (speaking of seals, we saw one sunbathing on the frozen lake when we were grilling at the campfire) both ends with a more bendy florist wire so it stays attached to it. This gives volume to the base and a canvas to be creative.
• Begin to attach the material: You make the filling for the base by making little bouquets from your collected material. Make the little bouquet (perhaps 3 thicker hay, 1 dried flower and a few more other hay) from your material and seel the end with florist wire to hold it together. Make sure to leave a little wire hanging from the end as this is attached to the base of the wreath to hold the 2 components together. Repeat the process and slowly you will have a full wreath.

• Loosely wrap hay around the entire wreath binding the ends to some florist wire that you find tucked in between the wreath. Also poke some more willows into it. Tip: to hide the wire, wrap thick hay (found by the lake) around it to form a pretty way to wrap the material around the wreath.

Find more wreath/flower crown guides from here.