These are the materials I used to make these trees. Most for them were found at the local Dollar store. The branches are made from a product call "Sisal Sheets", which is dyed sisal string glued into a mat. You get 3 sheets for a dollar. Each sheet will make three to four trees. The trunk is from BBQ Bamboo Skewers, which are 12 " long 1/4" dowel which has the last 3/4" sharpen to a point and come 36 to a package. Toothpicks, white glue, and scissors round out the material for the first stage.
The sheets are cut into squares of different sizes including, 2"x 2", 1.5" x 1.5" and 1" x 1". Since these squares are too thick, they are divided in half as shown above.
The next step is to shorten the skewers to the height of tree you wish to make. I made mine, five to seven inches tall. Then I drilled a small hole in the base and installed a half of a round toothpick to allow for installation of the tree later.
The next step is put the squares on the shewer, by pushing the square over the point of the skewer. Once the square is in place add a little white glue around the skewer at the square. Keep adding squares about 3/8" apart until the tree is finished. As you get closer to the top of the tree, I downsized the size of the square.
This is a completed tree. Notice how the squares get smaller as you go up the tree.
The next step is to pick and pull at the squares to loosen up the fibres to end up with a tree above. You will have to trim off pieces of fibre to get the general shape you require.
Next the tree is painted. I used grey primer, but others have used green or brown.
For the next step you will need a tub, hair spray and green ground foam. You take the tree from above, spray it with hair spray from all directions and then apply the ground foam to the tree. If you do it in the tub, you can recover the excess foam to be used on the next tree. Remeber to shake the tree over the tub to remove any loose foam.
This is the finished product, an Eastern Snagal ready to plant.
This is the hill behind the station with a few Eastern Snagals installed.
If you wish to make an spruce or evengreen. Just thin your squares to only one or two layers of sisal string before installing them. Then shape the squares as required. The picking and pulling step will not be required for these trees.
Now it is time for me to get back at making a few more Eastern Snagals, I still have a few more areas that need a few trees.
later
Doug
