Seasonal Collective shows community how to create beautiful wreaths
This past year the Seasonal Collective got underway with a series of workshops devoted to items that can be crafted with finds from the garden and from local fields and forests.
What is the Seasonal Collective? The name says it all. Based in the Kidron area, it is a group of women devoted to hunting and collecting natural, seasonal items and then turning those items into beautiful arts and crafts.
Rachel Forrer is one of the members of the group, and while she focuses on cut flowers over the summer, the winter is when her skills really shine. She enjoys gathering evergreen boughs, dried grasses and other things one might find among wintertime fields and forests.
“The Seasonal Collective did a wreath workshop [earlier this year],” Forrer said. “But I also love making garlands for staircases or hanging over doorways, making swags, tying up a bundle of whatever you can find and hanging it.”
This past year the Seasonal Collective got underway with a series of workshops devoted to items that can be crafted with finds from the garden and from local fields and forests.
"Last spring we did a workshop centered around growing your own cutting garden for cut flowers, so people got dahlia tubers and seeds,” Forrer said. “We talked a little bit about how to be successful with that. Part two of that workshop was this fall where we arranged flowers. Then we did our wreaths workshop this winter. Over the summer we also had something that we called a ‘bucket party,’ where people from our past workshops brought a vase and a bucket of cut flowers to arrange. We called it our flower equivalent of a potluck. So we’ve been finding our feet with that and figuring out where the interest is. We’ve gotten a good response with these elements.”
These events were held at Venture Heritage Farm in Kidron. More events are being planned for 2018, although the group is still in the planning stages, so specific dates are forthcoming.
Since the official start of winter is almost here and cutting gardens are done for the year, the Collective’s focus has turned to winter foraging and the wreaths, garlands, swags and other decorations that can be made with found items. It’s an easy activity to get into, one that requires very few supplies.
“You’ll want some kind of frame,” Forrer said, “particularly for the wreaths, whether that is something you buy at a craft store or something that you make out of branches or grapevines. I typically make my own bases out of wild grapevines that I find growing in the woods. It’s invasive, so you’re not harming anything by picking it.”
Foragers also will need paddle wire, which is a flexible green wire used for binding boughs and foliage to the frames, along with scissors, heavy pruners or shears to gather forage.
What to forage to make your creations? According to Forrer, anything that tickles your fancy will work.
“Usually evergreens are always the base, but then whatever you can find on top of that, like dried grasses or seed pods, berries, rose hips, feathers, we even had people picking up feathers on our walk,” Forrer said. “It’s really fun to just go out there with a bag and pick up whatever catches your eye.”
There are a few tips that would-be foragers should keep in mind, however. “One thing that I usually caution people about if they’re picking lots of fuzzy grasses with seeds, any kind of fuzzy seeds, if you bring that inside, it’s going to make a mess,” Forrer said. “You’re going to have to be OK with vacuuming it a lot, or you’re going to have to put it outside because it’s just going to start dropping seeds.”
Poison ivy is another concern, not to be confused with grapevines. Fortunately poison ivy vines are easy to identify in the winter. Whereas grapevines have a smoother appearance and tend to drape from tree branches, poison ivy vines are hairy, covered in roots and generally stuck fast to the tree’s trunk.
“Among other safety tips, I almost always wear a heavy canvas coat when I’m foraging because typically if you’re going after rose hips, you’re going to want tough gloves and something to protect your hands and arms because those can be pretty thorny,” Forrer said. “Sometimes even long-handled pruners help so that you can get to stuff without getting your arms and hands ripped up.”
Once you’ve spent a day walking among field and forest, gathering your supplies, the wreaths and garlands are relatively easy to put together, simply a matter of binding boughs and foliage to your frame using the paddle wire. As to how long wreaths and other items last, Forrer said she generally only keeps them for a season.
“It also depends on whether you’re going to keep them inside or outside. If it’s outside, it should last from the beginning of November until January or February, no problem.”
The cool, moist air helps to preserve evergreen branches and other natural finds longer than they might last in a warmer, drier indoor environment.
If natural arts and crafts interest you, you’ll definitely want to check out the Seasonal Collective’s Instagram page (@TheSeasonalCollective) to see some of the beautiful things these ladies have created.
Updates about future workshops will be posted on Instagram, and one also can send them a direct message for more information about workshops and other ways to get involved.