A tall skinny tree

Last Saturday I set out to make an easy tree. Two days later I started spraying on the most difficult tree yet. This all started when I dragged out the sewing machine to make a new spandex sleeve. The two sleeves I have been using were made when my sewing machine was broken and involved about eight hours of hand stitching, which I was anxious to avoid. I measured this and that, aiming for a stretched out value of the spandex. Because the sewing was so easy, I made it very tall, also. The end result is a very tall skinny tree which did not hold the initial layers of wet pulp very well. I spent the first two days trying to get the pulp to stop sliding off the spandex. When I began the tree I hated it. Now I quite like it, although I am grateful that I was able to spray and keep the pulp on after all.

It is always nerve wracking to spray a tree. If you try to spray too much pulp on at once, it gently slides off the surface as you stand there cursing. I never want to be a hysterical prima donna but after investing so much time and energy into getting something right it can be very difficult to just shrug it off. Case in point: one tree was creased badly when someone helping me grabbed and squeezed the trunk while we were trying to take it off its armature. It's the floppiest tree that I have made yet and I don't know why that is, either...Now I am trying to let it go, but every time I walk by that tree I have a small internal freak-out - why, why, why? Helpful to remind myself that these trees are going in the ground to be filled with dirt next winter...


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