Christmas tree farm....

My collection of cone shaped trees is growing once again, it feels like a Christmas tree farm LOL. It's like taking one step forward then two back. Every time I get a few trees in stock they're sold at the market. I know it's a good problem to have but I have one more market on Friday and then the big annual craft fair on Sunday and I'm HOPING I will still have a few trees available by then. I'm busy trying to make more this week but it's a bit of a challenge when I also have friends visiting us for a week and we're trying to show them around our neck of the woods. I'm managing to balance art time and friend time so everyone's happy.

It's quite the process to make these trees and not as simple as it looks. I have a piece of cardboard that I've drawn the outline on and I cover that with plastic wrap. Then I find the pieces to fit into the shape; it's like working on a jigsaw puzzle. I have learned that because of wrapping the cone once it's drier it's better to have more vertical pieces or if they are not too wide they can be squarer or rounder pieces. I am also trying to make them fit tight together without a lot of gaps between. I find each piece, add a bit of glue and put it in place. It takes about 3 hours just to lay out a tree. Then I smother it in a layer of glue and let it dry for a few hours until the glue starts to turn clear. At this point it's still flexible enough that I can remove it with it's plastic wrap backing from the cardboard and I wrap it around the cardboard cone I have made to help it hold its form while it dries completely. 

The next day I put another thick layer of glue on the seam and lay it down to dry so the glue will stay in the seam rather than running down if I stand it up to dry. After the seam dries I remove the cone form from within and add one more layer of glue to the whole thing and it's done.  Ready for you to add lights and have a lovely addition to your home. The images below are the same 2 trees with LED tea lights in the left image and twinkle lights in the the right image.

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