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Thursday, June 22, 2017

I Made Some Trees!

The are fake mini trees, so I guess I qualify as a fake mini God... Maybe not.

Anyway, I thought that you might like to make some trees yourself... so here goes!

I cut #26 paddle wire that you get in the floral department of the craft stores.  On this particular tree, I cut 11 pieces about four inches long.  I vary the number from seven on up.

The main thing to remember when you are doing this is to twist ALL of the wires in the same direction.  If you don't, you will be untwisting some wires that you have already twisted and have a big mess.

I hold the wires in a bunch with my left hand and my right hand holds the pliers.  That is the hand that I twist with. 
First I twist all of the wires together about an inch from the bottom end.  I keep going until I have a trunk that I like.

Then I turn it upside down and twist the bottom 
of the trunk wires to form the roots that go into the dirt. In this case, I had 11 wires in the bunch.  I twisted three at a time on three bunches. On the forth root, I had only two left and those two got twisted in the same direction as the rest.

I set the base of the tree in air hardening clay.  I get it at Walmart and it comes in handy for holding things together as well as making bricks and other finishes. The clay can be easily broken away from the trunk when you want to put it in a pot.

Back to the twisting. I always twist away from myself with the pliers.  That way, no matter which part I am working on, I am going in the right direction.  No unwinding if you do that.

Anyway, after you get a shape that you like, paint the trunk and branches brown... In this case I had a bottle of Bark Brown by Folk Art Americana. I am not even sure how long ago I bought.  I though that it was an appropriate color, with that name. It seems to work.

After that, I let everything dry and then glued greenery to the branches... Voila! A tree!

I am going back now to attempt pots for the bonsai. I have never tried that before. Wish me luck!

See you tomorrow.

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