Element One: Line

Copper Tree

Project Overview

The purpose of this project was to develop a 9” to 12” replica of an object out
of wire.
To achieve this purpose:
- I used copper wire because of its warm color and ability to be easily wound.
- I chose to make a small tree after being inspired by the Norse World Tree Yggdrasil and the World of Warcraft World Trees Teldrassil and Nordrassil.

Project Assumptions

Materials
- Wire
Other
- 9" to 12" tall
- A replica of an object

My Assumptions

Must be copper
- Copper is closer to brown than steel.
Must be intertwined
- It gives the bark texture.
Must have roots as well as branches
- I needed a way for it to be anchored.
All parts of the tree must be part of the whole
- No soldering on branches.

The Story

This object was inspired by my love of trees. While thinking of ideas, I first thought of doing a knife. The knife idea was going nowhere, though, so I changed my plans to a tree after being inspired by some artwork I had seen of the World of Warcraft World Tree, Teldrassil.

Research

I searched for images of wire trees on Google to get some ideas, finding images such as this one by Art2Tree on Etsy:

Copper Tree by Art2Tree — Photo Credit: Art2Tree

I also found helpful YouTube videos showing the techniques used to make copper trees, such as the Andy Elliott Craft & Creations channel.

Ideation

I made a few sketches of the basic concept I was going for before jumping into manipulating the material itself.

Sketches of the tree

I wanted to practice with the material before launching into the final product since I have never used copper wire or any of these techniques before. I started by twisted some wires together to make a thicker base. This would later become the prototype tree.

Length of Wire

After toying with this length of wire for a while, I finally had a proof of concept and felt confident in my ability to execute this plan on a larger scale.

Prototype of tree