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.