Things You'll Need:
- Bamboo Skewers
- Dried Wheat Sheaves
- Raffia
- Wire Wreath Frame
- Hosiery
- Garden Shears
- Gardening Gloves
- Miniature Pumpkins
- Preserved Fall Foliage
- Pruning Shears
- Votive Candleholders
- Votive Candles
- Pruning Shears
- Chile Peppers
- Nuts
- Paddle Wire
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Step 1
Gather a wheelbarrow full of colorful fall leaves and 6-inch-long garden trimmings. Suggestions for trimmings are: magnolia, oak, nandina, larch and maple. Remember to include some red berries in your collection!
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Step 2
Purchase wheat stalks, tiny pumpkins, colorful chili peppers and various large nuts. Wrap the nuts tightly in pieces of pantyhose, then secure with #24 floral wire (sometimes called paddle wire); this way the nuts can be added to the wreath as you build it. Wrap 10 or 12 nut "bundles" prior to starting your wreath. Leave a few inches of wire attached to the end of each bundle.
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Step 3
Pierce the base of chili peppers with paddle wire. Run the wire all the way through the base and twist the two ends together, leaving 3 to 5 inches of wire as a "tail." Wire 10 to 20 peppers prior to starting your wreath.
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Step 4
Use a wire wreath frame or make your own from a wire coat hanger. (Simply unbend it from the familiar shape into a circle. You can use the hook to hang your wreath when you are finished.)
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Step 5
Attach paddle wire anywhere along the wire wreath frame.
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Step 6
Select several stems of the 6-inch foliage pieces and place them together in a bunch with the stems at one end.
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Step 7
Place a few colorful leaves, wheat stalks, or a nut bundle on top of the bundle of foliage.
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Step 8
Place the bundle of foliage on top of the frame where the paddle wire is connected.
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Step 9
Hold the bundle in place and wrap the paddle wire around the bundle and frame. You will need two hands for this: one to hold the bundle in place against the frame and the other to wrap the wire.
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Step 10
Wrap the paddle wire around the bundle twice and then pull it tight. Make sure to leave the wire attached to the frame because you have a long way to go!
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Step 11
Gather another bundle of foliage and place it so that the leaves overlap the first bunch and cover the stems. Make sure that the stems on both bunches face the same direction.
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Step 12
Add a wired chili. Wrap the tail of the wire around a stem.
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Step 13
Continue overlapping the bunches of foliage, nuts and chili peppers and wiring them to the frame until you complete the circle.
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Step 14
Lift the first bundle that you wired onto the frame and tuck the last one under it.
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Step 15
Twist the wire tightly around the last bundle and knot the wire on the frame, leaving 1 foot of wire for hanging the finished wreath.
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Step 16
Cut the wire with scissors or pruning shears when you are finished.
