I have been thinking a lot recently about my use of floral foam and how I can alter my current designs and practices to use much less of it. It is a wonderful tool for allowing us to arrange in really cool ways, however it is a single use plastic and that’s really BAD. So I think it is important for all floral designers, either pro or just for fun, to start experimenting and looking at alternates to using foam.
With Anzac day on Thursday I am seeing a lot of traditional wreaths on my socials, so for my first experiment I decided to play with the wreath base. Oh and sorry, I didn’t actually make an Anzac wreath, I was going to start there however it evolved into something entirely different. I also just want to add, that I believe the most appropriate Anzac tribute is the classic Laurel Wreath, yes controversial I know and I will get into that another time perhaps.
What you need to make a sustainable wreath base
- Chicken Wire
- Sphagnam Moss or Floral Wool (sometimes called rock wool or agrawool)
- Florist wire for binding together
How to create your Sustainable Wreath Base.
Cut a long thing length of Chicken Wire long enough for the diameter wreath you’d like and wide enough to ensure you have enough filling. Mine was approx 60cm long by 20cm wide.
Place a layer of Moss or Wool along the middle of the entire length, ensuring when you roll it up that it is “fat” enough for your finished design.
Roll up the chicken wire and Moss/Wool like a giant sausage roll, ensuring there is a small overlap of the two sides of the chicken wire, this is where you stitch the two sides together with some florist wire.
Now you have a long thing “sausage” of moss/wool. Begin to shape this into a traditional round wreath by gently manipulating the sausage into shape. At this point you can create any shape you want really, teardrop, hearts all work very well.
When you are happy with the shape you need to join the ends together to complete. To do this, squish up one end of the chicken wire and open up the other so that it will slide over the squished end. Push together until you have a good solid join and no gaps. Stitch together using some florist wire.
Now you have a sustainable wreath base that you can add some flowers to… Have fun!
Tip- if using the floral wool like I did, sometimes it’s difficult to poke softer stems through the material, so poke a hole through the material with a wooden skewer prior to inserting the stem.
To help you out, I recorded this little video as sometimes its much easier to learn by watching rather than reading the steps.
How to make a sustainable wreath base
