Magnificent Miniature Trees

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It takes a little extra time and patience to sculpt with single-strand wire, because you must cut many individual pieces . . . whereas one length of electrical wire can be unwrapped to yield 19 strands. On the other hand, it's sometimes expedient to use one-piece wire in order to produce certain effects. The black annealed 24-gauge type, as an example, can be used to make a very attractive and sturdy tree that appears to be quite fragile and delicate.

(Besides wire, you'll need wire cutters or tinsnips, a pocketknife, and two pairs of pliers . . . one of which should be the needle-nosed variety.)

THICK AND THIN

After deciding on your sculpture's size and "style", cut a number of wire pieces that are each about half again as long as the tree will be tall. ( If, for example, you plan to make an eight-inch-tall tree, cut the strands 12 inches long.) Most of the extra length will be used to form the root system, but the copper strands will also be shortened as a result of the twisting process.

The height and design of the tree will determine just how many wires must be cut. After all, a sculpture that's only four inches tall can be made to look like either a massive elm or a young, struggling dogwood. It might have a "sapling" trunk of 1/4 inch in diameter or — if it represents a more heavily limbed tree, such as a spreading oak — a 1/2- to 3/4-inch trunk . . . which would mean, of course, that even more separate strands would be needed to produce a tree of the same height.

Obviously, taller trees require larger trunks. A 12-inch hickory, for instance, would need at least a 3/4-inch-thick trunk, although one of 1-1/2 inches would probably produce a more beautiful sculpture. And, because the size of the trunk directly affects both the size of the branches and the intricacy of the branching patterns, thicker ones — which capture the massive complexity we associate with grand old trees — generally result in far more intriguing creations. (The large trunks, however, do require considerably more wire than smaller "stems" . . . thus thicker trees are more expensive to make. On top of that, they're much more difficult to craft. For those reasons I recommend that you start out twisting a thin tree.)

THE TWIST TECHNIOUE

If you plan to use electrical wire for your project, strip off the insulation with a pocketknife . . . cut the wires to length . . . stack them with the ends nearly even . . . and hold them — at a point a little off center — with pliers. Then, using another pair of "grippers", grasp the wires about halfway between the "holder" pliers and the nearest wire ends and twist . . . but not too tightly, as excessive pressure can cause the metal to break. (If the wire bundle is too thick to hold with pliers, you'll have to grip it firmly with your fingers.)

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