toothpicks! w/ gum

so seriously, monkeyboy, there is a model shop here in NYC that would essentially take a piece of wood, a dowel for instance, and then run it through this "stuff" and then they woudl spray it. what the stuff was?? this doesn't help at all, right! haha

you can also buy that songe stuff, again the name escapes me, and cut it up to look like trees, depends on the scale though.

Dont put any of the foliated part of the tree in the model - it only occludes the real content. A subbtle reference to the trunk of the tree can be made with sections of dowels inserted into slightly skewed pilot holes. Much more elegant - much less contrived. It's the Built Elements that matter most - your efforts and their attention should be directed only towards IT.

a grad student here laser cut two basswood shapes and slid them together... almost like the 3d trees in autocad, from the top they are and X shape. It was basically a skeleton of branches and stuff. One of the few times the burned edges actually looked good on a model. This model was all wood though, soI'm not sure if that would fit with what you guys are trying to do, but in his case it was ok.

The Morphosis trees in their early models (look at the Blade House model) was the best I've seen. They were simply 'cool'.

Man, I miss making kick ass models!!

Don't know what the scale of the model is, but the best "trees" that I have modeled were made with a twisted (braided) wire that I got from the hardware store. I cut it to the lentgh I wanted (kept it long) and un-twisted the wires on one end to look like the branches of the tree and kept the "trunk" twisted. Then simply drilled into model base and inserted. This only looks good if there are a couple of trees. Kind of hurts the fingertips, but what the hell. . . metal trees.

Stay away from the sponge/moss stuff, it just looks silly. Stay abstract so that the model does not look like a H.O. Train set.

one more vote for simple abstractions....i've seen the dowels for all wood models...the skewed pilot holes are critical though, unless you're building an orchard, for overall effect...good looking models. i've also seen nails...8p carpentry nails for smaller scales, 16p for larger scales...and every scale inbetween. brads for site models if the scale is right...easy to install, nice texture if you have enough density. a hammer blow and you're set. in a series of models, clients understand the change in scale quite well.

if you must have 'tree look-a-likes' try dry babies breath from a craft store or flower shop. just cut it up and glue it into a small hole (use a brad (small nail) and put glue on the brad as you make the hole...that cuts out a step)

i've also seen balled up steel wool (kind of tough to glue, though) , window screen cut into 'shard shaped sheets' to drape over dowels or nails...

good luck!

if you do use wire, get the wire for making dried flower arrangements, again from the craft store/florist, it holds its shape well. then just clamp a tapered/chewed up (for differing shapes) wood dowel to your desk and wrap the wire around it concentricly (sp?) for a 'tree shape' then just pull your ready made tree off the dowel and place it on the model...done and done.

there are a lot of ways to make abstract trees. a simple dowel is one of the best ways to make a forest. you can also split the ends with an xacto to give the hint of branches. for more literal trees (but not model railroad literal) buy some really thing gauge wire and twist up the trunks, letting the branches fan out. don't paint them (but if you can't resist paint them black). or go to a flower shop and buy some baby's breath which looks really great. you will have to throw most of it away to get a good looking tree though.

i would vote for simple abstraction as well, but if they are going for something slightly realistic here is a model i did for a professors home. we used some sponges, louffa's or whatever they are called and i chopped they hell out of them. they turned out okay, but once again, if this were for myself i would have gone with the abstraction.

http://www.upedesign.com/architecture_second_draft.html

oh, sorry i don't know how to link this.

monkeyboy

I have some trees and telephone poles left over from a certain thesis model if you need them

1. Buy those little metal bendable branches. Paint the trunk if you so desire.

2. Buy some of the green, yellow, and brown foam at a hobby shop. Put it in a food processor and grind it to a fine powder. Sift out the large chuncks that remain.

2. Get some steel wool and make little balls but keep the steel wool loose.

3. Use some spray adhesive (77) and spray the steel wool after you place it over the bent branches.

4. Roll the sticky steel wool in the foam and set aside to dry.

Check out samples at www.gpimodels.com that's how I made them there.

I thought I would contribute to the discussion since the lecture posters are freshman year had different examples of trees being modeled from published projects.

My advice is:

What is important about the trees you are modeling? Canopy, Mass, Trunk.

What is the aesthetic of your model? You don't want sponge trees if you have a minimalist model.

Examples:

Gummy bears or toothpicks, puzzle pieces spray painted on toothpics, wire, etc. If you are a traditionalist try basswood sticks or some other stick at varying heights or some kind of floristry item. I don't like sponge. My opinion...

Students from Cornell used to use a plant called "airport trees" cause they grew out by the airport. I have since learned that they are the dried flowers from a sedum plant. Grows in yards all over America! The plant blooms about now. It is a low growing succulent that gets a rosy red cluster of tiny tiny flowers that then dried into mini trees. The best time to pick them is late fall after they have dried on the plant. They are all brown, look convincingly like little trees, but the best thing is that because of their branching habit, they can be made into teeny trees for big site plan models, but make really convincing trees for larger scale 1/8" models too.

ever see people that make trees out of paper glued into cone shapes and glued onto basswood dowel then stuck on the site? UGLY!!!!

its really all about how minimal you can do them :P

BABYS BREATH MAKES THE BEST TREES

yeah, i mean it does come down to scale, actual representation of a tree or an abstraction.

Make them bigger than you think. Usually the trees in model end up way too small.