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Tuesday 12 December 2017

Christmas Horse Head Wreath

Last week I went to the local Christmas tree farm, which is also our nearest nursery .... Harborough Nursery, where we bought our fruit trees a few years ago.
They had lots of tree trimmings. For a donation, I could fill my boot, which is exactly what I did. 
Later in the day, I went on a holly and honeysuckle hunt.
I wove the bendy honeysuckle stems into wreath bases.
With the log fire lit earlier than usual, I settled down to make eight wreaths. I had stocked up with pungent bay branches, ivy and rosemary from the garden. The wreaths can be recycled in more ways than one.
This is just before I began.
 
Here are the first results.


A friend of my niece, Hazel, posted a picture of a horse wreath on facebook. When I saw it I thought I could have a go.
 
This is not a tutorial but I hope it shows how I went about it.
 
First of all I found a simple, elegant horse head shape on Pinterest.
I enlarged it by 250%.
Next I cut a piece of chicken wire larger than the shape.....
..... and bent it using the outline as a guide....and I wore gloves.
I made two like this and wired them together with scrap wire in between.
Steve cut a piece of wood to act as a more stable base.

 I cut the fir stems quite small and began weaving them into the wire. Every now and again I pulled the two sides together with more wiring.
I did kind of "sew" the edges with wire to maintain the clean outline.
In my own garden I had some ornamental grass which I thought would make a great mane.
I tied it in separate bundles and attached it.
After adding a few other decorations..... a large button eye, a red braid bridle, some holly and a huge wired ribbon, it was complete
 On Sunday I gave it to Hazel and she was very pleased.
I don`t pretend that it looks like Bess or Lexi, but I think it appeals to her love of horses. 
 
Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed making them all.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

3 comments:

  1. That's brilliant Jen! I saw the horse wreath on FB too and copied it to a friend - I'll see if she wants to follow your guide. It looks perfect!

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    1. Thank you. It was fun to make but quite a challenge as I was making it up as I went along.

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