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Hope you had a merry christmas and didn't eat as much food as I did!
The day after a big one, I always absolutely crave to get creative. My mind spins with possibilities for some reason, and choosing one project is almost too hard. But I have been working on a project in my girls' room, with hopes of painting a mural in there too.
We have only been living in our house for three years, and there is sooooo much I want to do with it. I have decided to tackle one room at a time so it doesn't seem so overwhelming. Who knows if I'll stick to the plan! Usually I'll hang out in a space and ideas will conjure up and slowly I plan and plan and dream until they become reality. I know exactly what I want to do in each room, to the exact details of fabric colours and finishes, shelf sizes etc etc.. it's almost for me there is no thinking about 'what to do', the ideas just flow to me easily. If I wasn't an artist I think my next line of work would be interior design; although I would die if people just wanted neutral.. colour and quirk would be my specialty! After all, I have painted my whole house in a mustard yellow colour... looks a bit full on at the moment, but I swear I DO have plans!
Anyway, I digress, a big paper mache tree is one of my works in progress at the moment. Ever since I borrowed the book Bedtime Without Arthur from the library it inspired me to start this project, as I would really love to paint a mural around the tree sort of in this style.
I love all the flowing lines, contrast and colours in Jessica Meserve's illustrations.
Update: This project is now finished. You can view the progress blog posts using the links below:
Progress shots: http://julesmadden.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/happy-tree-project.html
The completed tree: http://julesmadden.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/the-happy-forest-paper-mache-tree.html
And then, the tree moved to a different room! https://julesmadden.blogspot.com/2018/11/home-decorating-for-kids-my-daughters.html
Jules :)
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27 comments:
Would love to see this finished! Redoing my daughter's room as a fairy tale forest. :)
Love the book and your idea! I want to make a free standing tree....never did anything like this before. How do you shape and cut chicken wire???? TIA!
Hi Jackie, if you want to make a free standing tree I think you'd have to have a good support structure built underneath, like a welded metal frame or one made from wood. You should find cutters at your local hardware store, and it shapes pretty easily.. wear gloves!
Hello, I want to make a tree like yours that fits in the corner for my class but wondering if you used anything to support this as I've noticed with the freestanding ones they tend to have a plywood structure or similar. Many thanks
Hi Andrea,
This one just has chicken wire, but for a classroom yes I would recommend some reinforcement. I think making a wooden framework for the chicken wire to be shaped on top of would work well.
Very good site you have here but I was curious about if you knew of any user
discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed here?
I'd really like tto be a part of online community where I ccan get suggestions from other knowledgeable individuals that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
Hi 'anon', I'd try some craft forums, perhaps on Facebook?
Can you tell me how you attached your tree to wall? I am looking to build a tree in the next couple of weeks similar to yours..which is beautiful by the way.
Extremely! Amazing!! informative article, well researched and clearly presented. Your hard work shown in your writing. Thank you for the hard work.
We popped some screws and washers into the wall through random points of the chicken wire to hold it in place. I am in the process of relocating this tree so I will post better instructions about that soon!
Hey Jules, i would like to make a tree like yours for my cats to climb on. Do you think its save enough with only chicken wire in it ?
I think it would be strong enough for cats- as the paper mache is pretty sturdy, just make sure you put enough layers on until you get the strength you need. If you can manage making a wooden frame for it first that would be even better!
Hi! Do you remember what dimensions your chicken wire were? There's so size many options. Thanks!!!!
Looking at the wire in the direction it's going in the photo, the holes measure 1 1/2" from top of the hole to the bottom, and the wire is a 1mm (19 gauge) thickness. Hope this helps :)
Did you reinforce the wire with any frame ..I'm doing a massive project in my daughters bedroom I'm wanting to do the tree but on a bigger scale would you reinforce the frame
Hello 'unknown', no I didn't use any support as the tree cannot be climbed upon really, it's pretty sturdy with all the paper mâché, but was only ever intended to sit inside. Plus I have calm kids (most of the time!) lol. If you're planning on going bigger I would definitely think about a reinforcing structure, perhaps something made from timber that you could wrap the wire around. Good luck! Make sure you share a link to images so I can see the final result!! Jules
This is so beautiful.
Thanks for sharing
I’m doing one very similar to this!!! We reinforced with a frame but I’m wondering how many layers of paper mache you did? Thanks for sharing this!
Hi Lani!
Awesome, I'd love to see your result! From memory I'm pretty sure we just did one layer of the blank newsprint, very overlapped with thick flour and water mix so it was pretty strong. Then we did a layer of the brown tissue paper on the outside and I also paper mached the inside of the tree with the blank newsprint to cover up all the chicken wire. (This was then painted brown) You might want to do one layer and let it dry then check its strength. It will depend on who is going to be using it- if you have rough kids or many kids (for instance in a classroom or public space) then you might want to do more layers! :D
I love everything about this!! I’m doing a fun “enchanted fairy forest” for my daughter’s birthday and making smaller versions of chicken wire framed trees/bushes is ideal!! Where did you get the newsprint paper??
Hi Michelle, lovely!! Art supply stores sell "butchers paper" that people use for life drawing- it's pretty cheap. Then again a cheap store might have something similar. Though I'd cut out the bother and just use regular newsprint, it's just I had some of this other stuff in storage!
Hi! This is so fun and I’m making one for my son this weekend! Did you build the structure and paper mache it first and then attach it to the wall, or attach it first and paper mache it as is? Also how did you attach the strips of chicken wire together to create the height? I was thinking zip ties? :)
Hi! This is a wonderful tree! I was wondering if you attached it to a wall first and then paper mache or the paper mache first?
Hi Josey, sorry for the delay in replying! I joined the strips of chicken wire together with thin wire. Zip ties might stick out a bit, but they might be ok. And yes we attached to the wall then paper mached in place...
This is amazing. How many hours in total did this take you? X
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