Palm Trees
I was asked for a tutorial on how to make palm trees. Unfortunately, I had already made the trees, so I don't have many in-progress photos. But let's take a stab at instructions anyway.
I used cardboard rolls from packages of aluminum foil and plastic wrap for the palm tree trunks. They are narrower and sturdier than the cardboard rolls that come inside paper towels, but paper towel rolls will do. Or, you could make tree trunks of any size from rolled-up paper.
I made perpendicular cuts on one of the rolls so I could put a bend in the tree trunk. I used hot melt glue to hold the shape.
The base of each tree is corrugated cardboard. I cut random shapes, as shown below. Each base is two layers thick. I traced the base of the tree trunk and cut a hole in the top layer of cardboard. I put some pennies in the bottom of each tree trunk to add weight so the trees would be stable. I glued everything together with hot melt glue.
I urge anyone who wants to make palm trees to look up photographs on Google. There are so many varieties of palm trees! The type you choose will influence what materials you use.
For basic palm tree "bark", I used some heavy paper with some texture to it. Mine happened to be a recycled folder. Card stock or even a brown paper grocery bag would work equally well. As you can see from the photo, I tore the paper into strips, then glued it around the trunk, making sure the torn edge was exposed.
I don't necessarily recommend the method I used to make coconuts. The "coconuts" are the strange red and white orb-shaped objects hanging to dry from the edge of the drinking glass in the photo below. If I'd had clay, I would have just rolled some clay balls. Instead, I happened to have some plastic beads handy, so I stuck a pipe cleaner through the bead to use to attach it to the tree. I wrapped each bead in tissue paper, mainly to make it easier to paint it, but also to add a little "coconut husk" texture. Once my tissue paper and glue were dry, I slapped some green and tan paint on the coconuts and called them finished. If I was going to make a date palm, I'd look for small beads to make bunches of dates.
As you can see in the photo below, next I added some fake plants around the base of each tree. Tropical/jungle landscapes are a great place to use plants that would otherwise be considered too large for one-sixth scale. Some of the "bushes" below are just ordinary leaves from faux flowers such as roses.
I painted the tree trunk with acrylic paints. I used a base coat, then dry brushed another color of paint over that to try and accentuate the torn paper texture.
You can see in the photo below that there's some burlap fabric wrapped around the base of each palm tree. I did that because many of the palm trees in my late parents' neighborhood in Florida had fibers on the base of the tree trunk that looked amazingly like woven fabric... But it was just the way the bark of the tree grew. Some trees have a pattern of old, broken-off stems from the previous season's crop of leaves. If I was making one of those, I would try gluing on bits of pine cone or other seed pods, or even folded triangles of paper to make that pattern. This is why I encourage you to look at real tree examples. You can find a lot of inspiration!
The palm "leaves" on my trees below are bits of plastic evergreen garland cut up. You could use fake ferns or any other fake plant leaves that resemble palm fronds. As of February, 2023, the Target Dollar Spot has plastic "laurel" leaves for sale that would make great one-sixth scale palm fronds.
I started making the tree tops by gluing several of my fake pine garland bits into the top of the trunk upright, followed by several more facing downward. I used hot melt glue to secure the palm fronds.
My Froggy Stuff on Youtube made palm trees in a video of DIY doll stands/displays. She made her palm leaves out of folded and cut cardstock. The relevant instructions begin at the 5:20 mark:
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(Lacking in-progress photos, I'll just use photos from my story post.) |
Above, you can see that I covered the base of each palm tree with scraps of upholstery fabric. You could use paper mache to cover the base, or even scrapbook paper. I also fringed some of the upholstery fabric and glued it around the edge of each base. To me it looks like dry grass.
Once the bases were covered, I glued on additional fake plants.
I decided I wasn't happy with the palm tree trunks, and added more detail with brown paint.
Below, you can see how I glued the coconuts in close to the trunk of the tree. Then I just kept adding more palm fronds until the tree top looked full enough.
In the two photos below, you can see that I added variety to the landscape by sticking fake flowers in among the other plants. These weren't attached; I just propped them up between the green plants glued to the base. This way I can change out the flowers whenever I want. Again, since it's supposed to be a lush tropical setting, you can get away with using larger flowers than would normally be considered in scale.
Fake Sand
Last year, I made a fake sand "beach" for Mer-May.
I used this textured spray paint by Krylon, but Rustoleum makes their own version. There's a wide variety of colors available.
As shown below, I lightly sprayed the paint over an old tan bedsheet. I cut a piece large enough to cover my table.
Bamboo
There are tons of tutorials online on how to paint faux bamboo, but this is how I did it. First, I painted a yellow or yellow-green base coat. You could also paint a tan base coat. Next, I divided the bamboo pieces into segments by painting brown lines around the dowels with a small paint brush. I smudged the paint while it was still wet (bottom four pieces in the photo below.) Finally, I used a toothpick to draw a line where each segment joined (top two pieces in the photo below.)
Scrapbook Paper
The castaways' bamboo huts (above) and the table top (below) were made using custom scrapbook paper I made. You can use this link to get yours: Bamboo Print Paper
I made the background walls in the photo above out of natural materials from my garden. The thatch is dried stems of winter wheat. The wall itself is dried day lily stems.
That's it for how I made stuff. Below, a few more photos.
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