Plaited / Braided Trident trunk

[alpineart]

This is a trunk that i have put together to get an idea of the best method of fusing and the best size whips to use .I have braided/woven in a fashion 30 plus whips

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and stitched the base together using raffia

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then winding more raffia around the base to secure the roots in the desired position. The apex or top 1/3 has been plaited blending all the whips into bundles of 3 and securing with a twist tie at the top .

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Whilst i have several hundred differing fused trunks on the go its the first time i have used this method .A combination of 1-2mm whips varying from 150mm to 350mm has been used as the grow the tips will be used as side branches , all going well it should come up a treat .Cheers Alpineart

[AnneK]

I reckon for all your enviable hard work; You are going to something extremely unique and very worthwhile. —Superb!

Regs AnneK

[alpineart]

Hi AnneK , It will be unique and a little different , eventually it will fuse solid , in the mean time it will make i good talking point .Cheers Alpine

[Mitchell]

Reminds me of the basket weave I tried, has leafed out and was going to post an update.
Though your braid is exquisite, those saplings don't bend so neatly or necessarily want to follow the pattern. A fine effort indeed.
viewtopic.php?f=104&t=7024&p=79492&hili ... ave#p79492

[alpineart]

Hi Mitchell , mate i haven't seen your topic , cant think of where i was hiding . Love to see an update thats for sure . Will check your post out now .Cheers Alpine

[Mitchell]

Worlds apart from this effort mate. Mines a mess I really like the neatness of the braid, imagine when it fills how perfect it will be. For a while it will look a bit unnatural as the braid is almost too perfect for nature, but after that period when the plants fuse the symmetrical braid will subside and a beautiful flowing trunk will be produced.

I'd like to see how far one could take this. Say you did the same thing but used 1000 saplings and made a massive sumo trunk 40cm across the base. Would take half a life time to produce but what a sumo it would be.

I am sure there are some crazy people that have tried that before. I am thinking Taiwan for some reason, perhaps I saw something on youtube.

[alpineart]

Hi Mitchell , i have seen some awesome plaited trees ,and i mean tree's but can,t think of where , google is the only thing that springs to mind and it would have been many years ago .I have considered doing a huge sumo but i need a helping hand . This little bugger was tough enough to keep neat but i would also have to be shown how to braid properly. I used pegs after every second weave and still managed to get mixed up in the process .The 1-2mm whips are easy to bend only 1 casualty in this lot .That was after i finished and tried to move a thicker one sideways . Don't have any whips left unless i undo a few strapped trunks , time is against me now as i have too many jobs to complete .

Cheers Alpine