Pinecone Wreath au Natural

After struggling with my pinecone wreath, and having difficulty keeping the little beggars secured tightly to the wire wreath base after trying various methods, I finally googled "pinecone wreaths" and found a very thorough and clear tutorial here by Felicia Kramer (thank you Felicia!!).  Felicia has a wonderful blog Another Bright Idea that I got all wrapped up in after reading the tutorial.  Anyway, I gathered all my supplies, large pinecones, small pinecones, wire wreath form, florists wire and needle-nose pliers.  

I was noticing some tiny bugs stretching their legs and wings as they warmed up when I brought the pinecones inside the house.  So I first laid all the cones on a cookie sheet covered in tinfoil and baked them at 210'F for 25 minutes.  I had gathered quite a few pinecones, so this process took a while.  The house smelled lovely ... a very delicate warmed pine scent ... mmmmm.  The baking not only destroys any bugs (sorry bugs), but also dries out any of the sap that is still leaking from the cones.  You don't want a sticky wreath!

Next I sorted all the pinecones by size so that each row is of relatively uniform size.  I lay them around the wire base in three rows.  The outside and inside rows of pinecones will be attached facing upwards, and the middle row of pinecones will be laid on their sides a bit (although they're standing upright here during the sorting so I could see they were all the same size).

It takes a bit of effort to wire all the pinecones on.  I used florists wire and first attached it to the wire base at a cross-piece, and then started wrapping using a continuous piece of wire first around the base of one cone, then through the wire base, then through the next pinecone and so on.  You really do need the needle-nose pliers to pull that wire tight!  You also have to be careful not to crush the pinecones as you yank on that wire!  The base of the pinecones has to be pushed firmly into the wire base, and also into the sides of each other.  They have to sit very snugly and they shouldn't wobble or flop around. 

If you find that one pinecone is wobbling, it will start to loosen the pinecones around it.  I found this happened a couple of times, and rather than be sorry later, I went back and unwound all the pinecones that were affected and tightened them again.  You can see from the back how snug they are fitted together.

After working the outside row, then the inside row, I worked on the middle row.  These pinecones I lay tipped over to one side all the way around.  I then wired them through the middle of the pinecone and onto the wire base below.  Tricky to do, but patience is key!  I heard a fair bit of crunching noises as I worked on the wreath, and worried that it would be sort of mashed and mangled looking.  But it turned out fine.  If there are a few broken seed pods here and there, it doesn't show. 

To fill in any little gaps where the wire base or florists wire was showing through, I took my tiny pinecones and hot glued them into the gaps in a random order. 

On Felicia's tutorial she had spray-painted her wreaths in beautiful colours.  I thought they looked good enough to eat!!  Especially the pink one!  I didn't think my dad would like a painted wreath, however, and left mine natural.  He's always loved natural settings and the beauties of nature in their unspoiled state.  So I just added a few fake berries (so natural!) for a bit of colour, and made a nice plaid bow for the bottom. 

I've never been very good at making bows, and decided to just buy a pre-made bow from Micheal's craft store, thinking it would be better looking.  But their "custom-made" bows were just awful, and I wasn't about to pay $19 for one!!  So I bought some wire-edged ribbon instead and worked away at the bow while watching television.  I just figured it out on my own, and that wire edging is great for holding it all together.  I was quite happy with the results.

And here is the completed wreath!

I was really happy with this project.  The cost was minimal as I only had to buy the wire frame, ribbon and berries.  I already had the florists wire.  The pinecones I collected for free in my neighbourhood, and I probably have enough left over to make another wreath for myself!  The actual work of wiring the wreath together took me only 2 hours.  It was a bit frustrating at times, but it all worked out in the end. 

I took it to my dad yesterday to put on his door.  He lives in a retirement home now and the door to his room was looking vacant and unloved compared to all the other residents' Christmas wreaths and finery.  When I presented it to Dad with a broad smile on my face, he said "Where's the colour?!".  And here I thought "natural" was going to be the way to go.  sigh

My dad has Alzheimer's, and one thing (among a million others) that I have noticed is that his likes and dislikes have altered.  For example, where he used to hate animals (although he must've loved us very much to provide us with many animals growing up), he told me recently that he "always loved dogs, but your mother never wanted them around".  I laughed out loud at that because it was most decidedly the complete opposite.  But I think it's nice too that he has now softened towards my dog, where as before he wouldn't hesitate to boot any dog away with a swift kick.  It seems he has also turned to bright colours!!  The fact that his eyesight is dimming too may account for part of that.  The natural wreath was a bit dull looking in his eyes, but I told him I'd bring something in next week to brighten it up for him.  He was very touched that I had made it for him, however, and that was worth it to me :)

Thanks for visiting!

Wendy