Tutorial: Neck Wreaths

This year I felt inspired to make some festive neck wreaths for my models. I’ve seen these on real horses for portrait photography, and thought it would be fun to create them in miniature.

This an easy, no rules type of project. For the garland, I’m using miniature pine roping I found on Etsy. (I have seen similar in Hobby Lobby this time of year, not sure about other stores) Other styles, like boxwood and holly, can be found online as well.
The pearl beads I also got at Hobby Lobby, and the miniature tinsel garland and pine cone charms were Etsy finds.

Of course, you can use whatever you have on hand. Beads, charms, ribbons, buttons, flowers, etc etc.

I used a hot glue gun for assembling them.

For inspiration, I’ve put together a Pinterest board of these on real horses!

To start, shape a loop large enough to slip over your model’s head. I had to use pliers to tuck the ends in tightly. You don’t want any sharp ends poking out to scratch your models.

I twisted a second piece around the loop, to fill it out and make it look less perfect.

After shaping it to sit on the horse nicely, all that’s left is to decorate!

To make a simple bow, cut and glue pieces of ribbon to make loops. Glue them in the center…

Then to each other:

Add a piece for the center, as well as pieces cut for the tails.

These tiny ribbons I tied instead. If you want to attach ribbons to your horse’s mane or tail, glue a tiny piece of cardstock to the back of each ribbon. This will give your sticky wax a better surface to stick to.