Hi Everybody,

I am the set designer for my high school's drama club and we are doing a Christmas play called Kringle's Window. My director would like a life sized maple tree built out of paper mache. It is stationary, does not have to hold any weight, should be about 13 feet tall, and has to be hollow in the back. The person who is building the set has no idea how to make the frame out of 2x4's and neither do I. Our idea was to build the frame, wrap it in chicken wire, then paper mache and paint it. We were also gong to incorporate some real sticks so that the tree looked more life like.

Can someone please help me by either sending me to a website on how to build the tree, or by telling me how to do it or something!

Thank You,

Well you have the right idea to do chicken wire.  I like using long strips of muslin dipped in white glue (about 2-1 glue-water) and run the stips verticle to create veins/bark in the tree.  Start at the bottom and work your way to the top, this way the seems look like bark hanging off the tree.  You need to wrinkle the muslin as it goes up the tree.  It's very helpful to cover the tree lying flat rather than vertical.  After it dries then you can stand it up. You could also incorporate real branches into your trunk.  I also like to spray the tree rather than brush paint on.  It will keep everything from falling apart and help get paint in the small areas. 

Hope this helps....

Try spray on foam then carve it...

Hope this helps...