Wreath Tree for the Holidays

It began with my love of making dreamcatchers.

I had been making dreamcatchers and giving them away as gifts for several years when I had a vision. The vision was of a Christmas tree made entirely of dreamcatchers. At first, I tried to make the conical shape with several strands of grapevine but it quickly became tangled up. Then I thought to stack the wreaths and weave them together with wire.

One weekend, I walked to a spot where grapevines tangled in the sky among trees. Armed with pruning shears, I gathered the vines into various sized wreaths. Once I had an armload of wreaths, I assembled them in order of size with the largest ones below, tapering to smaller dimensions. With three two-wire strands, I wove the pyramid of wreaths into submission creating this lovely assemblage.

Rather than standing it up on a table, I chose to hang it from the ceiling so it could spin freely. 

Below are directions on how it is done. 

How to Make a Wreath Tree: 

Begin by wrapping wreaths of different sizes and snipping off nubs and tendrils that would get in the way.

 

Here I have stacked the wreaths according to size beginning by laying the largest to the smallest. 

 

I stretch out the wire to the length of the stack plus 6", fold it in half and cut it. I do this three times. Each strand of two ends up with a loop at the fold for hanging.

 

I secure the folded loop to a dowel rod or expandible curtain rod to hold the end as I weave the wire to secure each hooped wreath. The two wires will criss-cross below the first wreath then criss-cross below the second. I found it helpful to always twist the wire in the same direction.

 

Twisting is most difficult in the beginning because you have LONG strands of wire to weave through the stacked hoops. I hang the tree the adjust the placement of the wreaths.

 

Voila, it can sit flat on a table or hang from a ceiling. The wreaths can be aligned once the tree is in place.

 

Decorating for the holidays can be inspiring with these books.