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Large Scale Evergreen Tree Making
by Paul Howald
Materials list:
- Tree Trunks: Whittled from cedar or redwood strips. Size varies from 8 to 24 inches tall. Cut wood in 1/2" square and 1/4" square strips by desired lengths.
- Hemp Rope: Stranded, 1/2" and 1/4" size.
- Glue: White latex and ACC
- Rubber Gloves: Latex
- Spagum Moss: Small bag
- Tree Limbs: Purchase a bag of twigs or go gather some from your yard.
- Scissors:Big pair for trimming hemp rope
- Cutters:Pair of wire snipping pliers
- Wire Brush: Small type for scrapping wood grain into tree trunks
- Woodland Scenery Material: Light green color - bag of T-45 and T-64 as well as Dark green color - bag of T-46 and T-65
- Hot Glue: Gun and glue tubes
- Spray Adhesive: Elmer's or Krylon
- Spray Paint: Krylon "Warm Brown"
- Surform Shaver: For plaining and shaping tree trunks
- Utility Knife: Xacto
- Wood Blocks: For holding tree trunks upright while forming trees. Cut 4-6 2x6 blocks about 6" sq. Drill hole in center for different diameter tree trunks.
Procedure:
- Select wood strip (example 1/2" square x 20" long) and use Surform Shaver to plain and shape into a tree trunk that has a large diameter at bottom and is pointed at top. Use wire brush to create bark-wood grain in trunk (optional).
- Insert tree trunk into wood block with appropriate diameter hole in center. This holds tree trunk upright and stabilizes your work.
- Cut Hemp Rope into desired length for bottom branches. Length establishes the diameter of the tree at the bottom of the trunk. Use larger diameter rope for larger trees. Unravel rope into strands. Cut smaller lengths for higher up branches.
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WARNING: HOT GLUE WILL BURN YOUR FINGERS WHEN SHAPING AND APPLYING TREE LIMBS. MOISTEN FINGERS BEFORE TOUCHING HELPS TO DISSIPATE HEAT. BE CAREFUL! |
- Apply hot glue to bottom of tree trunk about 2" from surface of the wood block. Top of block becomes "earth" level when tree is finished. Apply small bunch of Spagum Moss to hot glue. This represents the undergrowth and dead/broken branches under tree limbs.
- Spread Hemp Rope strand in center and pull down over tree trunk. Do not uncoil strand.
- Insert second Hemp Rope strand of same length down over tree trunk rotated 90 degrees to previous. Apply hot glue liberally all around both rope strands. Let cool. Do not uncoil strands.
- Repeat procedure 4, 5, 6 again using successively shorter length strands. Allow about 1 1/2" between each layer of Spagum Moss and last strand of rope.
- Repeat procedure until you have reached about 1 1/2 " from top of trunk. Strands of rope should have gotten shorter and shorter as you worked higher and higher to the tree top.
- At the top, glue 3 short pieces of rope downward with rope curvature outward. This forms the crown of the tree. 3 pieces should be spaced equally around the trunk.
---Variation:
For areas of tree where limbs are missing, dead or burned out, leave hemp rope out and drill holes for dead limbs. See Item 6 under material. These are glued (ACC) into holes in any shape or form. Caution: These are brittle and tend to break easily, so you want to glue them in place after tree is covered in green foam.
- After glue is cold around all hemp rope, go back and unravel all strands. There is no "correct" way to shape a tree. Most any shape or form is correct.
- Use wire snippers to cut out about 50% of the rope strands. See Item 10: there is no wrong way to cut and shape, but bulky trees look unprototypical.
- Use scissors to cut and shape the remaining rope strands.
- Spin tree trunk to remove all loose material.
- Insert dead limbs if desired at this point.
---Variation:
For areas of tree where limbs are missing, dead or burned out, leave hemp rope out and drill holes for dead limbs. See Item 6 under material. These are glued (ACC) into holes in any shape or form. Caution: These are brittle and tend to break easily, so you want to glue them in place after tree is covered in green foam.
- GO OUT SIDE. PUT ON RUBBER GLOVES.
- Spray paint the entire trunk and all rope strands with the Krylon Brown paint. This becomes the base color under the green tree limbs.
- Spray bottom 1/3rd of the tree with Elmer's spray adhesive (thoroughly). Sprinkle with course green ground foam. Repeat procedure working way up tree.
- Repeat Item 17 using fine ground foam as final covering. Set aside to dry.
Alternative Construction:
- A different looking evergreen tree can be created by making the tree trunk, drilling holes all the way up and around and ACC gluing "Ming Fern" branches in place. This replaces the hemp rope.
- Ming Fern tends to come with thorns on the branches, so be careful. This product is available from Hobby Lobby or Michael's, but it isn't cheap. It also will eventually dry to a brittle state, as the glycerin preservative evaporates over time.
- After all branches are glue and shaped as desired, complete Items 17 &18 above.
Have Fun! You should be able to make 3-4 good size trees per hour,
if you set up an assembly line. As hot glue is cooling on one trunk, work on another.
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