How to make palm tree's and ferns???

[glen]

As stated above, does anyone have any information on making palm trees or ferns? I don't mind putting in the time to make them fancy but really don't know where to start. (A potted Nikau palm tree would be ideal.)

Glen

[havanaholly]

Quite a while back one of the US dh magazines (DHM?) ran a DIY by Colleen Walker to make a palm tree, whe used 9 pieces of 20-gauge covered wire 9" long (I expect however long you wat your tree...) and twisted 3 pieces together three times, then twisted the three sets of twisted wire together to make the armature for the trunk. She covered it with floral clay strips from bottom to top, leaving a bit extra at bottom to smoosh into a foot so the trunk would stand, and leave a small knob at the top. She molded the trunk to a desired the shape and then spreadped tacky glue and wrap the trunk with strips of green crepe paper (I guess she used a roll,, she wrote of cutting it into thirds), overlapping slightly as she wrapped up the trunk, leaving a "tail" about 6" long. She then sponged the trunk with grey & brown paint.

For the fronds she used a couple of dozen pieces of 32-gauge covered wire about 4 1/2" long and 1/2" wide green floral stem wrap tape cut into the same number of 4" long strips (for a more realistic-looking palm tree I'd make some shorter fronds to grow from the tree;s "crown"). She ran a bead of tacky glue down the center of each strip of tape and laid a piece of wire on it. When all the pieces were dry she cut the tip to a point and cut each side of the tape strip in as many parallel diagonal cuts as she could, without cutting the wire, fluffed the strips gently with her fingers to get them to seprate a bit and stuck the wire ends into the clay knob as close together as she could; you & I know that the fronds grow in a spiral and that's how I'd put them in, with short ones about 2" at the knob's apex. Anyway, she then finished gluing wrapping the knob with the crepe paper.

I'm sure you can adapt this to whatever variety of palm tree you desire to make.

For ferns you could use the floral tape & wire and cut the sides of the tape to the configuration of whatever fern leaves you want.

[glen]

Thanks

Sounds a little complicated but I expected that.

I'll give it a try over the next couple of weeks and let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Glen

[gemlady]

I came across another one using green twist ties used for gardening to hold the plants

you take and shape end then cut slits on eatherside of tie to the wire then shape to the way you want

also found one to make little trees using feathers wraped on a wire starting with the bottom end of the feather at the top of wire spining it around the wire top to bottom it makes the feather flair out glueing as you go