My plan for the twine was to cut it in short lengths, fray one end to represent branches, soak the whole thing in diluted white glue, then let it dry overnight to become stiffer and hold its shape. I quickly realized the twine wasn't going to work out too well because the roll I bought was so tightly wound it had a natural coil that would have to be straightened somehow. Also, the individual strands, when unraveled, still looked too much like three little corkscrews and would need to be straightened and shaped somehow. I determined that making the twine work out was going to take more time than twisting floral wire, so I ditched that idea. Maybe I'll try it another time when I'm not so pressed for time.
I then turned to the floral wire to make my armatures. It was a fairly simple process of cutting a 50' roll of wire into 5" lengths. I then bundled four wires together, bent the bundle in half, and twisted the bundle tightly starting at the bent "loop" end. The looped end would be the bottom of the tree, and the "free ends" would form the branches. About halfway up the "trunk", I split the wires into two equal groups and twisted those about half the remaining distance, and so on. When finished, I spread the branches out to look like a natural tree, and then I bent the loops at the bottom of the trunk up 90 degrees and spread them out to make a little base for the tree to rest on... at least temporarily.
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| Cut wires waiting to be twisted into trees. The bottom left shows groups that have been folded and twisted together a couple of times, awaiting the next step. A finished tree armature can be seen left of center. |
After some initial experimenting, I ended up with about 29 trees with a couple of bits of wire left over. I then painted them all with some clear latex caulk with a little dark brown craft paint mixed in to try and hide the obvious twisted wire look of the trunks and branches. It took a couple of coatings of caulk slopped on pretty think to get the desired result. I then slopped on a good thick coat of dark brown craft paint to further hide the twisted wire texture and green-painted wire.
At that point, the tree armatures are ready for their polyester fiber canopies.
