Just a head’s up — I am finding the Day XXX titles annoying and hard to keep accurate, so I may wind up rethinking that title convention as we head into month 3…

I promised something fun today, so we are going to look at trees… (Okay — you might not find it fun, but I am hoping that they inspire at least one of us to be creative…)

Several years ago, I made some sculptures that I am still quite proud of. Each is a themed “tree”. Unfortunately, a component in their creation is no longer manufactured, so I am trying to decide if it is worth it to find something compatible to make more.

Anndddd…after seeing all the trees on Etsy, probably not. 😦

It is terribly discouraging to find that one of the few artistic things you are good at has no market. 😛

But I’ll keep brainstorming. After all, the trees would probably be a bitch to ship. 😉

But I’ll still share. These are my “H” series trees. And I have parts to make several others, so I may still do them for myself.

The first tree — Hope                         detail showing why it got its name

Home                                                    detail

Harmony                                              detail

Harvest                                                detail

These are really fun sculptures to make, and almost everyone has (or can obtain) the basic components…a stick, and a rock. I was using a product called PhlexGlu that is no longer available, much to the sadness of my mother and I, but in looking for something similar, I found FlexBond from Rosco which sounds similar enough that it might do the same job. I am eager now to find out!

If you don’t have something like that, hot melt glue to hold the tree in place on its rock, some Gesso mixed with a bit of Elmer’s Glue and some paper towels might serve the same purpose, but you will definitely want to paint over the towels.

That was one of the great things about the PhlexGlu. You could add a bit of paint to it, and the glue would try clear, leaving the color of the paint or dye to show through. It sounds like the FlexBond does the same thing, so we are eager to get some and experiment!

Though kind of expensive, a gallon of that stuff will last a hobbyist for a long time. It also (if it indeed works like PhlexGlu) is great for decoupage and similar applications.

When we did Twelfth Night when I was in college (eons ago) the entire set [image borrowed from the director’s website] was done with PhlexGlu and tissue paper. We could even mop the floor at night, though it was nothing but dyed tissue paper coated with PhlexGlu.

Can you tell I am excited to have found a possible substitute? 😉