A Year of Flower Wreaths E-Book

Malin Björkholm

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 86

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Learn how to create beautiful, modern flower wreaths, not just for Advent and Christmas but throughout the year. Decorate your front door, walls and dining tables, and even your head with flower wreaths. Organised around the seasons of the year, this book has 40 flower projects for all occasions, from the first longing for spring and budding greenery via summer light and harvest time to Christmas and winter rest. All wreaths have clear step-by-step instructions in text and pictures. There are facts about which materials are suitable and sustainable for the different seasons, including which you can pick yourself from nature or your garden. Written by florist, photographer and writer Malin Björkholm, whose wreaths and flower arrangements have become famous on Instagram due to their simplicity and use of natural materials. Projects in this book include an enchanting bright yellow mimosa flower wreath for spring, a traditional midsummer Swedish flower crown, a striking circlet of dried flowers and berries for autumn and a classic door wreath with pine cones for Christmas. More luxurious and more modern than any wreath-making book you'll have seen before, these magical projects will provide endless inspiration for year-round decorating with flowers.

Leseprobe

For Jakob

Contents

Foreword

Longing for spring

Twig pot wreath

Dense wreath in lovely pastel tones

Bushy spring wreath

Spring flowers and moss wreath

Spring flowers in eggshells

Mimosa wreath

FACT FILE TOOLS AND MATERIALS

WREATH MATERIALS

Budding greenery

Summer ceiling crown

Test tube wreath

Midsummer flower crown

Flower crown alternative

Table maypole

Sunny wreath with buttercups

Bushy baby’s breath

FACT FILE DURABILITY

WREATH MATERIALS

Summer light

Dahlia birdbath

Grey-green candle wreath

Fragrant wreath

Ring of sweet peas

Tall summer flowers

Cereal and flax wreath

Roadside flower wreath

FACT FILE PICKED AND BOUGHT

WREATH MATERIALS

Harvest time

Autumn wreath with a dash of blue

Asymmetry with ferns

Dense wreath with strawflower

Rosy hydrangea wreath with blackberries

Green autumn wreath

Dark toned wreath

Rosehip candle lantern wreath

Rowan wreath

Lichen and strawflower wreath

FACT FILE HOW TO CHOOSE MATERIALS

WREATH MATERIALS

Winter rest

Eucalyptus wreath

Bushy green wreath with larch

Asymmetric wreath with a dash of pink

Amaryllis wreath

Classic wreath in silver tones

Moss table wreath

Wreath with red berries

Cone candle wreath

Icy winter wreath

FACT FILE DRYING AND PRESERVING

WREATH MATERIALS

Wreath materials throughout the year

Foreword

FLOWERS AND WREATHS follow us throughout life. Wreaths are used as a symbol for both happiness and sorrow; perhaps that’s why they are so popular.

My life changed one day in April 2020 to never again be the same. The memories from this day are fragmented pictures without sound or other sensory impressions. I remember lying on the ground shouting, yet all I remember is silence. I remember the emergency services arriving, but I don’t have any memory of sirens. It’s all a vacuum.

This was the day when we found our child dead in his room. Our son, who soon should have turned 18, suddenly ceased to exist. Our considerate boy, who had grown into an affectionate young man. He, who always put the needs of others before his own. His heart suddenly stopped beating, without any forewarning whatsoever.

The time that follows I only have faint memories of. Months of grief passed and the summer came and went. Little sister learned to cycle and big brother turned 20, we swam and visited the cousins. I didn’t recognise myself. All my creativity and inspiration had vanished. The little energy that was left, was used to take care of my family.

I strongly felt I didn’t want to feel like this for the rest of my life. I was worried that grief would consume me and take over my whole being. Thanks to my inner strength, and through counselling, I slowly started to find a way to handle my grief and find room for it.

Eventually my desire to create returned. Much to my delight, since my creativity is such a big part of my personality. My passion for the home and garden – and creating beautiful environments – became my therapy. Working with my hands gave me new energy and a break from my thoughts. On my Instagram profile, I got a lot of appreciation for what I did. To inspire others is something that I have always found very rewarding and it is a major driving force for me.

This book is a tribute to my son. My love for him is just like a wreath; infinite, and it’s not something that death can take away from me. I know that he would have been proud of where I am today, and that realisation gives me strength. Grief is always by my side, but life has good moments and I can take joy in them.

I hope that when you read this book you will be inspired to start creating your own wreaths and that my tips will give you the courage and strength to try.

Love, Malin

Longing for spring

AS SOON AS CHRISTMAS is packed away and January has begun, I start longing for spring. I want to go out and dig in the garden, get dirt under my nails, fill pots with lovely pansies and turn my face towards the spring sun.

The winters where I live on Öland, Sweden are often grey and brown. We rarely get snow – at least not for any extended periods of time – so when the Öland wind whistles around the corners of the house, I long for the light to return.

I satiate my longing by filling the house with budding grape hyacinths and crunchy tulips. Then I make a wreath from evergreen plants, reed, birch and hazel branches, together with dried flowers.

I like to buy spring bulbs in January. I place them indoors in little pots and decorate with a few branches. Spring flowers are probably the ones I long for the most during the year. They give me hope that nature will come to life again.

If the winters are mild, I start digging as early as January. That bed that was never planted the previous year can suddenly become reality in the winter darkness. I love planning for spring’s upcoming garden projects and I always think: this year is the year thar I will manage to do lots of things. I compile lists and sketch out plans for things to be built and planted.

As soon as the sun is out on a cold February day, I take my cup of tea and enjoy it sitting by the wall of the house. In my beloved greenhouse, not much sun is needed to make it lovely and warm, so it’s often possible to sit there early in the season. I start by filling the greenhouse with spring bulbs, pansies and primulas – they do fine since it never gets as cold as outdoors.

Spring on Öland always offers a wonderful floral abundance, gorgeous blue and white meadows of blue and wood anemones. When the spring sun shines, I pack a picnic basket and take a walk out to my favourite places together with my family.

Twig pot wreath

In early spring, when nature hasn’t yet burst into delicate greens and the spring bulbs haven’t popped out of the ground yet, I plant pots with pansies and flowering narcissus outside the door. I like to decorate the pots with extra twigs, for example, a wreath made from bilberry stems. The wreath will also give extra support to the narcissus’ leaves that otherwise easily fall outwards.

MATERIALS

Florist wire

Wire cutters

Floral tape

Myrtle wire, green

Secateurs

Plant pot

FLOWERS/FOLIAGE

Bilberry stems or other fine twigs

Spring bulbs

LEVEL: EASY

1 Take two lengths of florist wire and join them together using floral tape. Pull the tape lightly so that it gets tacky and sticks to the wire.

2 When you’re halfway through, add more wire to make the frame longer and continue wrapping with tape.

3 Add more lengths of florist wire and wrap them together until the wire is long enough to fit as a wreath around your plant pot.

4 Bend the wire into a ring and twist the ends together. Secure with a bit of floral tape.

5 Attach the myrtle wire by wrapping it around the ring and twisting the end.

6 Start constructing the wreath by adding a bunch of bilberry stems to the ring and securing in place with myrtle wire.

7 Continue adding more bilberry stems. Cover the ends of the previous stems with the next batch of material to keep them hidden.

8 When you reach the end, lift up the first bunch of bilberry and tuck the stems under.

9 Turn the wreath over and cut the wire with the wire cutters.

10 Secure by ‘sewing’ a couple of stitches into the wrapped wire – thread the wire through a few times to secure it in place.

11 Place the wreath on top of a pot filled with spring bulbs.

Dense wreath in lovely pastel tones

It can be hard to find good materials for wreaths in the spring. When that happens, I go out to my garden and cut a few sprigs of box that I complement with a few bought flowers – for example, pink rice flower and apricot-coloured wavyleaf sea lavender. Light pastels will brighten up this season. The delicate, green colour of the box will also give a lovely spring feel. Even though I love large, bushy wreaths, they have their time and place. A compact wreath will give a neater impression and can often be simpler to make as well. This cute wreath will fit perfectly on my black cupboard in the greenhouse.

MATERIALS

Metal ring

Floral tape

Myrtle wire, green

Wire cutters

String for hanging

FLOWERS/FOLIAGE

Box

Rice flower, pink

Wavyleaf sea lavender, apricot

LEVEL: MEDIUM

1 A metal ring has a fairly slippery surface, so I always wrap it in floral tape. This will make the surface a bit tacky so the material won’t slip. To do this, tear off a bit of floral tape and secure one end to the ring. Wrap the tape around the ring, lightly pulling the tape as you wrap to activate the glue and make sure the tape sticks.

2 Attach myrtle wire to the ring. Wrap the wire around and twist the end to secure it in place.

3 Start by adding little sprigs of box to the ring, then wrap a couple of times with myrtle wire so that it is secured in place.

4 Continue adding flowers and leaves along the ring, always making sure to cover the stems of the previous layer.

5 When you reach end of the wreath, lift the first layer of box and tuck the stems under.

6 Turn the wreath over and cut the wire with wire cutters. Secure by ‘sewing’ a couple of stitches into the wrapped wire.

7 Hang the wreath using string.

Keep in mind!

Common box tends to have an unpleasant smell, so I recommend that you don’t bring the wreath indoors. Alternatively, use large-leaf box instead, since this variety is unscented.

Bushy spring wreath

I have a soft spot for big, bushy wreaths – wreaths that are allowed to take up space and that aren’t so structured – where branches and flowers are very welcome to stick out in a playful way.