COTTON WREATH TUTORIAL WITH NICHOLAS ASKEW

It's officially the holiday season! Watch as Nicholas Askew, whose family has owned White Oak Farm for four generations, shows us how he creates these one of a kind cotton wreaths! It can be displayed on your door, over a fireplace, or anywhere that needs a pop of classic white. It's the perfect addition to any space in your home!

Cotton Wreath: nicholasaskewdesign.com/collections/products-1

INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thehomedotcom/


ELLEN GEFEN: @ellengefen


Video Production By Gefen Productions: gefenproductions.com/webdev/

Nicholas, talk with me a little bit about your background and how you came into cotton farming. Okay. So I grew up on a fourth generation family farm in a small town called your North Carolina. I've always loved the colors, textures of the white cotton, and I wanted to use my family's product in a way that would be able to be shipped all around the United States. And so I formed the cotton wreath and I think the cotton wreath that you'll see today is a luxury product. You know, not everybody wants them or needs them, but whoever wants them really loves them. Um, and so I wanted to further my education in the agriculture community. So I went to NC state and I studied landscape design and horticulture technology. And after I moved, after I graduated, I went and moved to Charleston and start and worked as a landscape designer there and started my Nicholas Askew design in Charleston, South Carolina.
So wreaths are thought of as something we might use just during Christmas time and holidays. The idea of a cotton wreath is fabulous to me. Growing up in Savannah, Georgia. How do you think wreaths can be used year round and in particular cotton Wreaths? So I think how they can be used around is so it's very versatile. A cotton wreath is very versatile in so many ways. Um, you're getting a dried product and so this dried product is dried and can be used outside. If you use it outside, it needs to be under a covered porch where they weathered elements, prevents it from the cotton coming out. Um, I think that you can always replace it with different color bows if you'd need it. I think you don't need a bow. Um, I think it represents its own self, but if, if you need one, you can definitely change it out, um, to any color depending on the season. Ellen is going to be our first guest. All right, so Ellen you get over here. So basically Chloe, I'm going to hold this and you put your foot on the wreath clamp and we're basically gonna make a circle with the cotton bundle. So you're going to incorporate this. And when I tell you to step on it, step on it. Okay. There you go. You got it. You just push it down and we're just going to make a circle. You told me something that I thought was interesting. You need to tell them if the cotton comes out, how do you, Oh good. Thank you for bringing that up. So just say this piece comes out. Well, take your Aquanet or any type of maximum cold hairspray, your hairspray. Dab it a little bit and just tuck it back in. It'll hold. And you know, it's nice that you know, it's not synthetic, it's not made in China, it's handmade and it's grown local. So it kind of tells its own story. That's, you know, it's a conversation piece here. So each is handmade products or they're all going to be different. So Ellen, if you would like, you can incorporate some cotton bowls just to fill in around it if you would like. Okay, so you would come over here. Basically you're going to take a cotton bowl, fill it in however you like it. Perfect. Okay. So you can certainly do this at home. You can use great vine and rapid and wire it or glued them in. I sell the cotton stocks online www.nicholasaskew.com they can purchase the cotton and cotton socks and make their own bundles if they want to. Thank you very much for joining me. Thank you for having me.