THE TREE.

Better late than never, here is the post with some photos of the TREE! :) This is the tree I worked on this summer for our school. My talented architect friend, Dana, used her skills to make some layout changes to our school. In doing this, she found this little room under the stairs (by 1st, 2nd & 3rd grades) and knew it could be better utilized as a reading room. This tiny little room had 2 windows which we all know are a commodity. I never saw the "before" because quite frankly, the windows on the door were literally boarded up with paneling. I never knew this room existed. I believe it was just being used to store some things. (But when my husband went there it was the room for the school nurse! And when the school was first built I believe it was the principal's office!)

Earlier in the year, my friend & I had chatted about some ideas for the school library. We discussed a papier mache tree. So when Dana discovered this room & took on the project of converting it to a reading nook for small reading groups, she asked if I was interested in constructing the tree for this room. Of course I was ... I was just nervous. Because. The only papier mache thing I had made was {this eagle} with Brett for a school project. But I knew that was easy enough. And I figured this would just take longer. Which pretty much was the case, but when you're talking about a floor to ceiling sized tree that's covering up pipes & getting fitted into a corner where there's trim at the bottom & a metal cord cover on one side up on the wall. And knowing kids are going to be in there. Stepping on its roots. Punching its trunk. Okay, of course I hope those last 2 things don't happen. But. I have 3 kids. I know the potentials. And I wanted to be prepared. So besides all that, it was JUST like the eagle. :) *wink*

(Above) The pipes we were wanting to cover. But not permanently. So the structure has been adhered to the anchored wood strips with industrial velcro tape.

More of the room. Pre-tree. :) But my friend Dana had already gotten started painting.

Trying to figure out my plan of attack working around the awkward base trim. 

I was nervous. So I did a lot of stalling ... like taking on the fun & easy part of the project! Picking out the fun paper for the leaves! :) I decided to go with a mix similar to these {other tree projects} I've done. Apparently, that's my style & I'm sticking to it. :) I not only went for papers that worked with the colors in the room, but I also chose some alphabet letters, sheet music & shamrocks (our school is "the Irish") to go with the school theme. 

I can't tell you how long this structure (above) stood like this in my garage. Stalling. Big time. See, when I get scared ... I wait for panic mode to set in. Because then & only then can good things happen. 

Finally, I had Kyle help me anchor the sides to these bases as an attempt to keep its shape. Trying to fit it into its corner remotely (I built this in my garage) was difficult. But, I had 3 kids at home with me this summer. Besides, I'm a night owl & this worked well for me to just go out at 9 PM & work 'til I couldn't work any more. 

Then I started to add on some branches & roots. The trunk was made with really thick wire & I used chicken wire that was more pliable for the branches & roots. Then I snipped up (using tin snips which I also used to cut the chicken wire) bits of wire & wired it all together. I believe I took this photo above to show that I used some pieces of my white garden fence / stakes for support in the 'branch armpit'. I just used my trusty staple gun (which I also used throughout the project) to fasten the chicken wire to the wood.

When I felt confident about the structure, I wrapped the whole thing in brown kraft paper with masking tape. I might have overdone it. :) That happens when you don't know what you're doing. 

These supplies were my friends for about a week straight. These and a box fan to help with drying. I made small batches of paste at a time. I used 2 Panda Express take-out forks so that I didn't have to ruin anything of mine. :) And an old ice cream bucket & a dixie cup cut down for measuring the wall size powder. Oh this brings back memories!

I papier mached for 5 or 6 days. And usually I worked 2-3 hours in the morning, then a 2-3 hours again at night. Definitely time consuming & messy ... but exciting to see the tree start taking its shape & firming up!

When I was satisfied with the strength of the papier mache, I painted it using a semi-gloss. 

The kids were all over helping me paint it. But all were grossed out by the papier mache process. Davis helped me for about 8 minutes, then asked if he could be done. :) Not as fun as it looked, I guess.  But I did like involving them because Davis (3rd grade) & Libby (Kindergarten) I knew were going to be using the room. And I figured if they had invested some time in the project, they'd help preserve it once it was in the school. 

Finally it was time to move the beast up to school. My friend Dana came with their truck & we strapped it in for its short journey up to school. :)

Still nervous (paranoid) about the trunk's strength, I did decide to zip tie this little piece in there. Probably unnecessary, but it made me feel better. 

I had already planned on this happening, but I went ahead & had finished off the roots at home knowing there was a small chance it'd just "work out". It didn't. :) The roots needed to be rebuilt once it was in the room. Not a problem, I just mashed up more chicken wire & wired them onto the roots I had already built. Then spent a couple days papier maching over the bottom portion.

I loved the way the leaves turned out!!!!! I had bought a box of joint biscuits at the hardware store! Cut out a leaf shape in all the paper then used mod podge to adhere it to the wood piece & a coat on top to make it glossy & seal it. I loved these little guys. 

Dana had painted the walls a darker green, the ceiling a pretty robin egg blue & then I used the light green to paint out the tree top. Then I used 3M strips to adhere to joint biscuit leaves to the wall & ceiling! In this photo above, it's not quite finished ... I see a piece of newspaper where it looks like I did a patch job. And it's not fixed to the wall just yet. But my friend's husband did come in & anchor some 2"x8' strips to the walls. They matched the 2"x8' strips that make up the tree's frame, so when it was all done we used industrial strength velcro tape on the 2"x8' pieces and sandwiched it all together.

I mixed together another batch of the papier mache paste for the leaves that went on the tree. Took two cut out leaves (paper only, no join biscuits) & chose a thin part of a branch and sandwiched it in between the wire.

Originally from St.Louis, I'm a Cardinal fan at heart. And I thought it'd be fun to have a little 'life' in the tree. So I hot glued this little guy to a branch up above. 

As an afterthought, I tried out this little treatment on the bark. I just haphazardly dry brushed on a dark brown. It was really just an experiment, knowing if it didn't work out I could just paint over it. But I loved the results. It picked up on all the little rough edges underneath the layers of paint, it looked like real tree bark. SO COOL.

And here is the tree in its corner & two bean bags waiting to be opened. This was a fun surprise for the students, families & teachers at the before school open house.

I love this view. The school carefully cut out the panels in the top half of the door that had previously sealed off this room. Can't remember if it's just open or if there's plexiglass in there. Such a happy view.

It was definitely a labor of love & well worth it. I am happy to be a part of the team that helped bring such an inspirational space like this to our school. My elementary school had so many fun little elements that I still remember to this day. And a few of them were in the Library. I hope in 20-30 years the kids (as grown ups) include this little reading nook as part of their magical memories. Whether it's that they remember dreaming under the branches as they listened to or read a book; or that they remember being cozy in this sunny room on days that it was cold, snowy or rainy out; or even just being inspired by the artistic element & process of making the tree.  As a kid, I know I would have loved all 3. :)