Traditional tutorial

Secure the reel wire to the copper wreath ring.

Place a handful of moss on one side of the copper wreath ring. Loop the reel wire around the moss to attach it to the frame. The wire should be pulled tight. Keep adding handfuls of moss, using the whole bag until you have covered the entire ring. Leave the reel wire attached ready for the next step.

Take your evergreen foliage and cut the whole pack down to useable sized pieces of approximately 20cm - around the width of your handspan.

Add bundles of the evergreen foliage and use the reel wire to secure it to the copper ring. Ensure you only wrap wire round the bottom part of the stems so the top of the foliage is free to create the shape of your wreath. Layer the next bundle on top of the first bundle, again only wirings around the bottom part of the stems. Keep layering and fixing the evergreens on until you have everygreens around the entire wreath.

Turn the wreath over so you are looking at the back mossed side. Cut the reel wire and fix it back to the copper wreath ring in exatly the same way it was fixed on at the beginning. Ensure it's well fastened so your wreath doesn't fall apart.

Now you have the evergreen wreath base, it’s time to start personalising your design with the fresh foliage. Cut down the mixed foliage into usable sized pieces. Cut the stems diagonally so the tip is a sharp slant as this will make it easier to insert into the wreath, as well as assist with moisture uptake from the moss. Strip any leaves from the bottom inch of the stem and feed through the evergreen foliage and into the moss base. The layers of reel wire and moss will mean that the foliages are well fixed in the wreath. Keep adding all of the mixed foliages, considering how you would like your end design to look.

To wire the dried fruits and spices you will need to attach the wire to the decoraton and twist the wire together to create an anchor point. Once this anchor point is added, you can push the wire straight through your wreath base to attach them to the wreath. This part is definitely easier to watch on video (linked at the top of this page!).

Place a pinecone half way along the pinecone and using the gaps pull the wire around the cone and twist the two ends together.

For the fruit slices, gather a few together and simply push a wire through the flesh and twist the wires together. For the whole citrus fruit, slide the wire between the slits and push the wire all the way through the fruit so it exits through a slit on the other side - twist the wires together.

For the chillis and cinnamon sticks, use the green ribbon to tie it around these (bundling 3 cinnamon sticks together). You can then loop the stub wire through the back of the ribbon.

Now you have fixings on your fruits, you can add them to the wreath, inserting the wire through the front of the wreath, ensuring when they come out of the moss base at the back that you bend them in to secure them in place.

You can now loop your ribbon through the top of the wreath to attach it to whatever fixings you have available on your door.