I am sorry I haven’t made a post for a while, I have been suffering with a prolonged head and chest cold which has been going on for over a month, gladly it appears to be getting better now.
Also, because of the very cold winter we have endured this year it just has been far too cold to go out into the Lapidary workshop, even the wood burning stove couldn’t cope with the sub zero temperatures so nothing has happened out there at all this winter so far.
I am one of those people who cannot sit idle for long so I had to find something t keep me occupied and I went in search of ideas. As you know I had a dabble with a gem tree a while back so I thought it would be good to expand on that idea and as a result I found a fantastic site which is written by the artist Sal Villano, his site can be found here:
His work is really wonderful and the finished product is so realistic to look at, all manner of trees from Willows to Bonsai’s, but the real appeal of his work is how he mounts them in sea sand and the uses Indian ink to create an effect that makes the trees look like they are growing out of moss.
I was bitten, I just had to learn more about how he makes these wonderful wire wrapped tree sculptures, and fortunately he has a downloadable book which at only $9 is wonderful value. The content and instructions are really well written and it’s fully illustrated with working drawings so you really can’t go wrong at any step.
So far I have three trees at various stages of construction and they are starting to look good. The beauty of making these is that once you have mastered the basics, you can really let your creative juices flow.
Here are pictures of the three so far in various stages of production:
The first is mounted an a small flat pebble, I followed Sal’s instruction to use sticky tape to stick the branches to the deges of the dish, I found this quite fiddly to do. I am waiting for the glue to dry which holds the sand.
The second is mounted on a slab of rock, I got more creative with this one and made the roots longer than the first and I decided to try using small dabs of epoxy to hold the tree to the base instead of using sticky tape, it seems to have worked and is much less fiddly.
The third tree, well this one has only just been started, the root structure has been formed now I need to wrap up the trunk and get the branches formed. I really have no idea how this one will turn out because they sort of gorw their own shape as wrapping progresses.
I will post more pictures of these 3 wire trees as they progress.
I would advise anyone who has found this interesting to visit Sal’s web site and have a good look around and buy his little book to help get you off the ground with this art form, you won’t be sorry I am sure!
All the best
Dave
