Thread: My Haunted Tree

Tweet

Hi all!
Finally finished my Haunted Tree.





I decided not to use chicken wire because I really hate chicken wire (it hurts me all the time )


Also this was a last minute decision, if you can call September last minute for Halloween....I know you all understand me here!


So... short cut... 12" tubes.

The two I picked, one fit snugly inside the other.
Home depot man told me I was the first person to not only "not complain" but to actually like that one was slightly smaller!


I found some flexible pipe in the attic. I think it is leftover irrigation pipe.
Didn't ask my DH if I could use it "Finders Keepers..."


I gorilla glued it in place about 6 inches from the top.
As you can see there was a little situation with the glue, but it's not going anywhere and that's what's important.

I also glued a piece of plywood to the bottom. Yes that's an expensive circle cut piece, but it's all I had and I didn't feel like shopping anymore.


Cut out a hole near the bottom for the uplight.


The stumps are just crumpled up newspaper and masking tape (more pics are on my blog of this part) Gaps filled in with more newspaper and tape.


The face was just a simple cut out shape.


more to come.....

K Part 2.....


Face built up with celluclay



More tapering on the base and ridges added with crumbled news paper and masking tape. This all gets paper mache... several layers



the ridges are matched on both parts of the the tree and more paper mache still

here the parts in half...


and together


On the top I used coat hangers, taped them really good to the tree, and built up around with more paper and tape.
and of course more mache.



the bark texture is celluclay ( I used an entire bag on the tree) and my fingers.



the whole thing got a paint job of charcoal mixed with brown for a very dark color, still there is some depth and light in there (though not very visible in this image).


I dry brushed a sort of taupe color on top ( no good close up bark pics will load them later)


I wanted the branches to crawl across my ceiling, so I used real branches (from a recent trimming), eye hooks, and fishing line to attach them to the ceiling.
The bases are just touching the top of the tree. They look like they are attached but they are actually just hanging over it. Now I can make them stretch as far across the ceiling as I want, no worries.


The up light was little strong, so I put some tissue paper behind the face to defuse it a little. I like the light coming from the top though.

With the the two parts it will store and move easier and I can either save the real branches or chuck them and get new ones each year.


Will be adding some greenery to the branches as well....sort of a weeping, mossy look.

Wow! That looks fantastic!
I love the creepy face. You did a super job on that!

NIce job! It turned out very nice. I really like your cut out face. I am actually working on two trees right now.

wow love it!!!

Great tutorial! I know there's been some people looking how to make some faux trees.

Really beautiful work. The bark is very convincing - and I never would have guessed the small branches weren't attached. Looks like something straight out of Sleepy Hollow.

A fun read too!

I really like your tree! PHANTASTIC job! Thanks for the tutorial too!

Thanks you guys for the compliments.
I have always wanted a tree and There are so many ways to do it on here.

Great Stuff foam would be a good alternative for building up the ridges and stumps, but I had a recent great stuff explosion ( lots of things are exploding on me lately) so I was afraid.

WOW!! That's a great tree. You spent a lot of time and effort on it and it paid off. Nice job.