Terrain – 15 steps to a Wireform Tree

Terrain – 15 steps to a Wireform Tree

Instructions courtesy of Keyotis.  Thank you!

You can make deciduous trees out of wire.
Materials needed:

• 20-24 gauge wire ( really any wire, even 12 or 14 gauge would be fine for massive trees )
• small wire cutters
• two sets of pliers (needle nose are ideal)
• a spark plug/deep well socket

I would suggest making a practice tree as your first tree. It needs to be big enough that you can clearly see what you are doing,and provide the opportunity to get familiar with the steps involved.

1. Using the wire cutters, cut 8 pieces of  10″ lengths of wire.
2. Bend the wires in the form of a “U”
3. Place the spark plug socket in the middle of the “U” and twist the wire clockwise a couple times above it.
4. Remove the spark plug socket from the tree.
5. Using pliers, clamp onto the tree an inch or so above the “O” we created with the spark plug socket.
6. With the pliers clamped in place, turn the base of tree clockwise and let the wires tighten up a little.
7. Taking hold of two or three of the free strands of wire, twist them clockwise to form the first tree branch.
8. Using the pliers, clamp a half inch or more higher on the tree from the branch you just created.
9. Twist the remaining wires clockwise until they tighten up.
10. Again, take a couple of the free strands of wire and tighten them to make another branch.
11. At this point completing the tree branches should be fairly straight forward.  As you get higher on the tree use less strands of wire to make branches. High up in the tree single wire strands are fine.  It helps to look at a real tree while performing these steps and realizing nature isn’t perfect either.   Remember, the branches can be clipped with the wire cutters to make them appear more proportional to the rest of the tree.
12. The roots of the tree is a lot like making branches in the upper part of the tree, albeit smaller and thicker branches.  You want to take a couple loops, maybe even three from the “O” and twist them clock wise together. Repeat this until you have use all of the available loops.
13. Contort the new tree roots you have created to look like the real thing.
14. Now that we have a wire tree we need to put some bark on it and cover the wires up.  This can be accomplished by using latex caulk, mortar, or pretty much anything that will adhere to the wire and cover it.
15. Paint the tree, with acrylic Craft Paint, and add foliage.

Estimated Time:

15 – 20 minutes to make the tree. 

1 hour to coat with latex caulk (followed by 24 hour dry time).

15-20 minutes to paint (excluding dry time).

Have a terrain, or other tip?  Submit your ideas, or register as a user, and drop me a line!