We had house guests staying in the train room for the past week, and anyway it’s summer and the weather is too nice to spend days in the basement. It turns out that bending tree armatures is an excellent patio activity that requires minimal tools or precision, and is thus compatible with the consumption of French Blanche and other summer delectables.
These were my first tree armatures, and I started with 26-gauge floral wire. I quickly found that managing trunk diameter is the principal challenge. The denser the tree, the greater the challenge.
For the densest trees, I had to resort to strands from electrical extension chords. These are too fine for branches longer than a centimetre by themselves, but when twisted together, they’re reasonably robust. Similarly, it takes quite a few strands to build up to the diameter of a single thick wire.
There are 48 named trees in the thicket, and some of them are compound trees with multiple trunks. I suspect they will keep me busy through many fine afternoons this summer.
Pembroke:87 