Homeschool Fiction

I’ve always wanted a gemstone tree. I first saw one in a specialty store when I was a child. It was so beautiful, and looked so fragile, I was afraid to touch it. Yet, I did — gently, watching the way the little tree arms moved and the little leaves swayed. My parents bought it as a gift for my Grandma. I think she still has it.

This past summer, I was visiting with my friend Anna (who has an awesome website, Consensual Living). She and her daughters, like myself and my daughters, are artists and love to create ATCs (art trading cards) and a myriad of other types of artwork. Anna had made some beautiful wire gemstone ATCs. I was very impressed. She later sent me her instructions on how to make a full sized gem tree and I’ve since made quite a few alone (with my daughters and their friends) and facilitated my older Girl Scouts in making them for Holiday gifts. With shopping around at local gem stores (thanks to another friend, Alicia, for “where to buy” suggestions), I estimate our trees cost about $2 per tree to make and (now that we are experienced) about 1-2 hours of time. We are looking forward to using the same basic technique to make a really large tree. This, of course, will cost more in both time and money. We used local (Arizona) rocks for the base stones and a variety of beautiful little gems for the leaves. I call these “Wire Gemstone Bonsai Trees”, even though they aren’t bonsai trees, because they can be shaped to remind me so much of the Japanese trees I love so much. Their silhouettes are gorgeous.

Here are my Wire Gemstone Bonsai Tree Directions (slightly modified from Anna’s original directions):

Supplies:

• 24 Gauge Jewelry Wire — gauge is very important, but color isn’t; Go Wild and don’t think that your tree has to have all the same color of wires or stones
• Wire Cutters
• Hemostat or long nose pliers (we use an “All-in-one tool” instead of either of these — shown in the next photo)
  
• Base Rock (I picked local rocks, for fun)
• Rocks or Gemstones for Leaves (these directions use 36 gems per tree)
• 527 Craft Glue with Fine Tip (I found this at Michael’s)

Directions:

1. Cut twelve 18 inch sections of wire. You don’t have to be precise, just close. I’ve cut 4 strands of three different colors for this tree (and I’m adding a very thin copper wire into each group).
2. Fold each strand of wire in half (individually).
3. Make a small loop, then twist it 5–6+ times (try not to wrap the wire) until the loop (circle) at the end is very small (small enough to hold a drop of glue with a gemstone in it). It should look something like this:
4. Make a “rabbit ear” loop to the side of the original loop, then twist it until you have a small loop at end (small enough for another gemstone).
5. Twist the whole branch 5-6 times. This can be very imprecise since you are making a unique tree.
6. You’ll note now that one of the ends of loose wire is longer than the other. Using the longest wire, make another “rabbit ear” and twist it until you have another small loop at the end of it.
7. Twist the whole branch 5-6 times. Your branch will now look something like this:
8. Repeat Steps #2-7 for all 12 wires. If a wire breaks at some point, just twist it back into the mix. If you don’t do Step #5, your branch will look like this instead (which is fine!):
9. Group completed wires in groups of 3.
10. Take 2 of the completed wires and match them up at the ^ (upside down V), separate the right and left wires of each and then twist each side together 5-6 times.
11. Take the third completed wire and match up with the ^ on the set you just made, separate left and right wires and then twist these together into the mix (feel free to be creative on how you twist these together). Once all three are twisted together, set the set aside.
12. Do Steps #10-11 for the remaining wires. You should now have 4 sets of 3. [This is the "Oh, No" stage.]
13. Match up all 4 sets at the ^ and separate left and right wires. Twist all together to make a trunk. Twist tight! Be sure to leave loose wires for roots. [This is the "I think this is completely messed up" stage.] On some of our trees, we’ve added groups together one at a time, instead of ALL the branches at once.
14. Spread out your branches if they have gotten squished together.
15. Twist together various wires to make rambling roots. I like to twist some and then have them branching off in different directions (just like a real tree).
16. Place your tree on your base rock. Push the base of the tree firmly into the rock; the tree must be right on the base rock for gluing. Wrap the roots around the base rock, using pliers (if necessary) to make them turn in and appear to grip the rock.
17. Tightly secure your tree to the base rock with rubber bands. At least one on either side of the trunk.
18. Check your leaf loops and make sure that all are parallel to table, to help in placing the leaves. You can rearrange them to your liking after they are dry.
19. Using the 527 glue, liberally glue trunk and roots to the rock. Allow this to dry for 15-20 minutes.
20. While this glue is drying, pick out 36 of your favorite gemstones.
    
21. Now take your glue and apply it to the loops of one branch (only do 2-3 at a time), around the edge is fine or sometimes it will form a bubble (we always made our loops small enough that a drop of glue stuck in it perfectly). Carefully drop the gemstones onto the dot of glue. Doing one branch at a time helps keep the gems organized to your liking.
22. Allow to dry for 24 hours (less if you live in Arizona), then you can cut off rubber bands. You can also cut any glue that sticks up on your tree (once in a while you’ll have a strand of glue on the tree).
23. You can now turn your branches and leaves in any way you like. Here is a photo of my favorite tree:
24. You might like to glue felt to the base of the rock so it won’t scratch tables.

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We’ve learned that there is an “Oh, No!” stage and an “I think this is completely messed up” stage to every tree, then POP — a perfect little wire bonsai looking tree appears. You know you’ve done it correctly if you have these stages. My youngest daughter (age 7) was in the middle of saying, “I don’t think this is working,” when she exclaimed with a big smile, “These are SO easy and they look SO hard!” [NOTE to adults helping kids: I did have to tighten her twists a bit more before we put glue on her loops. My 7 year old needed a lot of help on her first tree, but made her second one almost entirely on her own. My 11 year old barely needed any help after we figured out the directions.]

Before making these trees, I spent a lot of time online searching for directions. I was unable to find any good directions that were also free. Consider donating to Do Life Right if you’ve found these directions useful for your own projects. Thanks so much!

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By: Lisa