Assembling the Center Panel Wreath Surround

Leaves.....More Leaves.....Still, More Leaves!

   This is what I kept saying to myself.  Every time I thought, Ok....I am done with the leaves...I would loosely fit them together and nope....need to make more leaves!  I finally settled on 96.  I wont get into wiring the shapes just yet~ that is coming up next.  To assemble the wreath, first I laid all my pieces out in the color order I wanted them. I used a light and dark green, and a goldish brown color of beads to keep things interesting

  Once laid out in an order I liked, I started from the top, or back most set of leaves. I made it the same way I make my real wreaths at Christmas time~ even used the same green floral wire.  My first set was wired together, then the next one laid on and a couple wraps around with the wire, then the next and the next

  Wrap the wire round as tightly as possible, I mean, really tight, otherwise, one can simply pull out a leaf by tugging ever so slightly. I went round each single leaf stem 3 or 4 times with the wire, and used it right off the spool~ meaning, I had the entire spool in my hand and wrapped each side of the wreath with a single length of wire

 The beginning and ending tails are left quite long to attach both sides together with

  This is the front side, the leaves are densely packed and flat. I will not bend them around to shape until on the basket

  First side done. easy. Now the second side is laid out.  The second side will give you fits trying to get it the same length as the first, so have your first side right there, and every other leaf or so, check your length to keep yourself on track. I made, took apart and remade and took apart and remade the second side at least three times before I got it to where I wanted it

  I checked several times placement on the basket to be sure they would fit right before I finished them in silk

  All of my wires are hidden beneath soie ovale.  If you are not familiar with it, it s a wonderful flat untwisted filament silk. I am wearing gloves because it catches on even the most microscopic of nothings, and my hands are so rough~ I have never ever had nice pretty girls soft hands!  Again, starting from the top, the entire piece is wrapped in the soie ovale to cover the wire wrapping. One at a time, several wraps around each leaf is made.

 Absolutely not visible from the front, I still wanted my basket to look just as nice from the underside.

  Now comes the fun fun part, assembling the center panel on the basket!  If you grew up in the 1970s, you should remember the 'cling form' toys that were so popular~ if you don't, they were packaged like a board game with a scene on the board coated in plastic. With it came a bunch of little plastic sticker looking pieces that you could position around on the board to make scenes. They clung to it by static electricity, hence the name Cling Form~ anyway, this next step reminded me of that game a lot, as I had all my pieces finished and I could put them where ever I wanted, it was pretty fun ;)