Straight Outta the Garden: Chile Pepper Wreath
Source: marthastewart.com
By Hannah Holbrook
The team at At Home Magazine wants to help you bring the vibrancy of nature into your home. When dried, Chile peppers can last several years if protected properly. Why not turn these long-lasting, beautiful peppers into a fun and unique piece of home decor? In 10 easy steps you can do just that!
Warning: Chile-pepper juice will burn, so wear safety goggles and gloves, and wash your hands before touching anything else.
MATERIALS
- Fresh Chile peppers
- Scissors
- Dish Soap
- Newspaper
- Black Iron Wire
- Dark annealed steel wire in three sizes: 1.0 mm/19 gauge, 0.58 mm/24 gauge, 0.41mm/28 gauge
- Needle-nose pliers
- Safety goggles
- Gloves
STEPS
- Wash pepper branches in cool water with a little dish soap to eliminate residue. Rinse well.
- Discard broken or bruised peppers.
- Spread out the pepper branches on newspaper to dry out. Remove the leaves from each branch using scissors.
- Sort your peppers to establish a color theme! Ensure that you only use the vibrant red peppers, save the green tinted peppers for another project.
- Set aside a few branches of peppers for later (they will be bunched together and used to fill in holes).
- Trim branches to equal length, and arrange the branches in a line. Ensure that you save the leftover stem material for later.
- Using wire three times the length of the aligned pepper branches, form the hanger of the wreath by twisting a loop twice and shaping it into an arch. Coil the long end into a circle about three times.
- Start to cover arch wire with leftover stem material. Attach bunches of leftover stem material using the 19 gauge wire.
- In the same manner, use the 19 gauge wire to attach the branches of peppers, starting at the top and working in a circular motion.
- Using the branches of peppers you set aside earlier, create pepper bunches of five. Loop these pepper bunches together with wire. Attach the small bunches of peppers to the wreath: Using long, thin needle-nose pliers open an insertion point in the stem core of the wreath. Pull the wire end of the pepper bunch through, settling the group into place. Wrap wire around branch and twist at ends to tie. Continue this process until your wreath looks full.