C
CDW
Guest
Thanks for the comments
Now for the foliage
The simplest way of making trees is to use twigs as the trunk (after all they are made of wood and are the right colour)
View attachment 72721
The thing i find that makes them more realistic is if you make up some smaller branches and cover them in foliage, the same idea can be used to make shrubs and bushes
The method:
You need some wire (i use telephone cable because its solid core and not stranded, just strip off the plastic sleeve)
View attachment 72708
Secure a pin/nail so you can wrap the wire, midpoint, around it and lay out one end flat on the bench secure the loose end so its straight and taught. cover this wire with contact adhesive then lay strands of bristles/flax/wool/paintbrush hairs etc across the wire. in this instance im using some garden twine that i have unravelled.
View attachment 72709
View attachment 72710
View attachment 72711
lay the other end over the top of the strands and the wire and use a bar of some sort to start to twist the wire round (i have used a dremmel in the past but sometimes it's just too quick and snaps the wires)
the strands of material will become entwined in the wire twists and start to form little "bushes"
View attachment 72713
View attachment 72714
When you have the effect you want just cut the wire wherever you need to separate them
View attachment 72715
Next spray the little "bushes" with contact adhesive (this one's from halfords, cost £5 and will last for ages) you can use PVA stippled on with a brush.
View attachment 72716
Then just cover the entire "bush" with what ever you want to use for leaves/foliage in this case im using some that i bought cheap mixed with some homemade, and some home made on its own to show the similarity.
You can use mixed herbs to good effect, as well as crushing up dried leaves and dying the with food colour.
If the inside structure shows through, it'll look like twigs under the leaves, i find the other method of covering clumps of sponge with foliage a bit too solid looking.
View attachment 72717
To make your own foliage ..... it's as simple as buying different colours of washing up sponge and popping the into a kenwood chef / liquidiser and chopping them up into fine bits, you can add colour if you want to (food colouring is best as you can mix the colours to get a certain leaf colour you require)
When they're chopped up into a fine mush, pour them into a very fine sieve or filter them through coffee filters.
when the majority of the water has drained them tip the gloop out onto a board and allow to air dry, be careful not to put it in a draft as it ll blow everywhere
this is a selection of the colours and textures from different sponge.
View attachment 72718
View attachment 72719
Attach them to your twigs in a natural way and you should have something that looks like this
View attachment 72720
Obviously just glue them directly to the base if all you need is some shrubbery or bushes
Another effective method is using grape stems and covering them with foliage, credit from me to this idea goes to Ron (spanner)
View attachment 72722
View attachment 72723
next update will be the finished item .....
thanks for looking.
View attachment 72712
Now for the foliage
The simplest way of making trees is to use twigs as the trunk (after all they are made of wood and are the right colour)
View attachment 72721
The thing i find that makes them more realistic is if you make up some smaller branches and cover them in foliage, the same idea can be used to make shrubs and bushes
The method:
You need some wire (i use telephone cable because its solid core and not stranded, just strip off the plastic sleeve)
View attachment 72708
Secure a pin/nail so you can wrap the wire, midpoint, around it and lay out one end flat on the bench secure the loose end so its straight and taught. cover this wire with contact adhesive then lay strands of bristles/flax/wool/paintbrush hairs etc across the wire. in this instance im using some garden twine that i have unravelled.
View attachment 72709
View attachment 72710
View attachment 72711
lay the other end over the top of the strands and the wire and use a bar of some sort to start to twist the wire round (i have used a dremmel in the past but sometimes it's just too quick and snaps the wires)
the strands of material will become entwined in the wire twists and start to form little "bushes"
View attachment 72713
View attachment 72714
When you have the effect you want just cut the wire wherever you need to separate them
View attachment 72715
Next spray the little "bushes" with contact adhesive (this one's from halfords, cost £5 and will last for ages) you can use PVA stippled on with a brush.
View attachment 72716
Then just cover the entire "bush" with what ever you want to use for leaves/foliage in this case im using some that i bought cheap mixed with some homemade, and some home made on its own to show the similarity.
You can use mixed herbs to good effect, as well as crushing up dried leaves and dying the with food colour.
If the inside structure shows through, it'll look like twigs under the leaves, i find the other method of covering clumps of sponge with foliage a bit too solid looking.
View attachment 72717
To make your own foliage ..... it's as simple as buying different colours of washing up sponge and popping the into a kenwood chef / liquidiser and chopping them up into fine bits, you can add colour if you want to (food colouring is best as you can mix the colours to get a certain leaf colour you require)
When they're chopped up into a fine mush, pour them into a very fine sieve or filter them through coffee filters.
when the majority of the water has drained them tip the gloop out onto a board and allow to air dry, be careful not to put it in a draft as it ll blow everywhere
this is a selection of the colours and textures from different sponge.
View attachment 72718
View attachment 72719
Attach them to your twigs in a natural way and you should have something that looks like this
View attachment 72720
Obviously just glue them directly to the base if all you need is some shrubbery or bushes
Another effective method is using grape stems and covering them with foliage, credit from me to this idea goes to Ron (spanner)
View attachment 72722
View attachment 72723
next update will be the finished item .....
thanks for looking.
View attachment 72712