Tree Sculpture

[animosity]

Here are a few(of way too many) tree sculptures I have worked on this year. The first tree in this collection was my first sculpture from about 4.5 years ago.
Sorry the image quality is so poor on all but the first. The last four were all taken on my phone in poor lighting.

This tree is just steel wire



This is steel and twine. Hand painted. each rose is cut from an old shirt. the tips are burned to give contrast.


This is steel structure. It is wrapped in a layer of white thread. Then two layers of cream and brown wool. The tips are a green bamboo yarn.


This is steel and copper structure. It is wrapped in a layer of wool. The 'leaves are a recycled orange/red yarn."


This is steel structure. It is wrapped with paper. The flowers are store bought paper flowers(i was not feeling that ambitious). It is potted in green paper.

[bagatelle]

This looks fabulous! I've just been sorting old clothes - I usually use them as rags to wipe the sink and furniture, then burn them, since we have boiler room. Those roses made of old shirt sounds like a nice idea. I also like the coins in the pot in the orange one.

[SirLance]

Those are pretty cool! How long does it take you to do something like that?

[animosity]

Thank you.
The build time on these all vary to a great degree. The plain steel takes anywhere from 8-20 hours depending on the size. The wrapped trees take anywhere from 50-200 hours depending on the size and materials. That large cream tree took about 200 hours. The roses on the green tree took 20-30 minutes each.

[PonyPotato]

What kind of tools do you use to make these? How much does the material for each one generally cost?

Personally, I really like the plain wire one the best.. it's neato.

Thank you for sharing!!

[amonkie]

Another one who loves the plain wire.. I think its because I love trees in winter and this is a great embodiment! Do you just have these around your house or do you put them in a gallery?

[animosity]

I just use wire snips and needle nose pliers to make these. The cost varies. The plain wire is not very expensive. Total cost on a potted tree is generally under $30 for the plain ones. The wrapped trees are a little bit more, but none of them cost of $60 in materials.

I agree with you about the plain trees, but they are too fast and my wife gets tired of them all. My house fills up faster than I can get rid of them. My favorite is the rose tree and another one which is not pictured here. I do not have these in a gallery, but it is something I have been giving consideration. The majority of these are in my home. My family has a lot. Almost all of my friends have at least one.

I just finished another one tonight. I'll probably post a picture tomorrow.

[kramus]

I do like these. Thanks for sharing your trees

I've heard great things about making trees using recycled bi-pole wire - we have some folks here at TFP who bought a wire tree from an artist who built the tree inside a free-standing old window frame. The artist worked wrapping wire branches and roots around the frame. I believe the piece is transforming a sealed window in their older house.

[animosity]

Thanks. That does sound like a neat idea.

I just finished this one.