Trees

[Branstetter]

I have been making these things for a few years. Giving them to the people that show the most interest. So far I've found new homes for most of them.

Recently I've even been able to sell a few, trying to support a very expensive cancer habit. I've been fighting this battle for 4 years so far. Not fun but I've been very blessed in a lot of ways throughout this journey.

This is just a couple pictures of the trees that I've done. And a couple other things.

I'm always looking for input, ideas, suggestion and that kind of thing. Let me know what you think.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I have a wire tree that I made from a kit yearrrrrrrs ago. Have you tried different wires IE; copper, brass, aluminum, or possibly a combination of them?

Welcome to IFI. Hope you can kick your habit.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. I really like the roots on the trees on the frying pans, nice flow to the roots, almost look like they're growing. Have you tried that particular tree on a rock? I've always been fond of tree roots on interesting shapes.

 

KICK that habit's BUTT! I'll be pulling for you.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ausfire]

Nice work there. I like your choice of bases.

Good luck with your battle.

[Branstetter]

Thank you very much for the comments. I really enjoy hearing what other people think of my work. I'm currently trying to figure out if I should take the step in making my art a primary focus. I have the opportunity to have a fixed income, disability, then I could play for as long as my body will tolerate it. Or I go back to work, never have any free time, be miserable all the time but have more money to spend on things I don't really need. Tuff choice, huh?

It's hard to see in the pictures but the way that these are made by forming the wires, usually steel, to the final shape. I never really know what it's going to look like until it's pretty much done. After I've formed it I use a small torch to heat the wires and fill in the spaces with bronze, copper, or brass. I like using bronze and copper best because I can get allot of colors out of it as it cools.

The biggest problem that I've had so far is photographing the final product. I can never seen to get the light right. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Here is a link to my Facebook page
Offsite link removed. There is plenty of room to post the photos etc on IForgeIron and keep all the information in one place and in one discussion.
I have quite a bit of different things that I've made over the years on there.

[mnt]

The trees are great.  

 

As with those above, I say kick the habit!

 

As for pictures, what I did and it seems to work well is:  make a photo box.  I used PVC pipe, made an open 4 x 4 x 4 foot cube.  Go to a thrift store and get an old sheet, I used white-ish.  drape this over the top and the two sides, secure it with clamps.  Then you can order seamless photography paper, comes in various colors in a long roll.  have that hang down from the top back to the bottom front in a gradual curve.  On a nice bright day, set the thing up outside and take pics.  If you have a good camera, put it on a tripod and let it do its thing.

 

Sorry I don't have any pics of the setup.  And of course if your projects are really big, then it makes it much harder, but it looks like your trees should fit in something like that easy.  And, it breaks down to a pretty small package.

 

Good Luck.

[Branstetter]

Thanks for the description, sounds like a good idea to me. I think I'll give it a try.

My daughter is a model and we had one of the photographers try and although they looked good he still couldn't seem to get the depth feel right. It's frustrating because I want to have nice photos but the idea of another expensive hobby doesn't sound good...

Maybe I'll figure it out...

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

A photo forum will have a lot of info, but here are some tips to get you started.

When I worked at a machine gun dealer we had to take pictures of the guns that were for sale. We used multiple lights pointing in from several different positions, and angles to remove all of the shadows. This makes a huge difference in the image quality. We had one particular gun , believe it was an M-240, that was giving our photographer fits. We ended up shutting the lights off in the room, put the camera on the bulb setting, then painted the gun with light from a flashlight. BINGO, a perfect image.

Plain simple backgrounds that contrast with the item, and don't blend in color wise.

Avoid harsh lighting,reflections, bright spots. Diffused, or indirect lighting is best. Overcast days are better than bight sunny days.

A good quality DSLR camera, and a good lens also make a difference due to adjustability, but good results can be had with a good point and shoot with proper preparation.

Good luck!


BTW, I hope you are not using Wagner, or Griswold cast iron pans. :) I love to cook, and cherish Mom's old cast iron.

Have you tried mounting your trees on wood like logs, root knots, burls ?

[Branstetter]

I'm happy to say that I have recently placed several of my pieces at a local gallery. I'm pretty happy about that.

Here are a few that will be headed that way very soon.

[Mudman]

Man that is super cool!

[Eddie Mullins]

I think the trees look great, really like the ccross too!

 

Good luck with your new ventures.

[scrapartoz]

very nice work. well done and I wish you the best with your current battle.