I have some old Life-Like trees that my grandpa had given me, but there so dried out that it’s not funny. I believe that they are made with Lichen, but whatever it is they look dead. I was wondering if there was any chance of saving them or are they just to far gone.
Thanks Norman…
Depending on how realistic the trunk looks you might be able to salvage them with cheap hairspray and sprinkled on ground foam.
Space Mouse is on to something. Maybe they could be the foundation of something more than they appear to you at the moment. If they are not too fragile and decrepit, spray them with some tacky glue or hair spray, and sprinkle some ground foam on them. They may turn out quite well. Otherwise, you would be better off scouting the roadsides for suitable weed stems this fall.
yea these things fall apart at the slightest touch. I was thinking about using the trunk as a new starting point.
If I glued them or used hair spray would that keep them from falling apart. Cause with alittle ground foam they would nicely look like a dying tree ( half dead, half alive)
thanks Norman…
If you really want to preserve them, gently soak them in 1 part glycerin to 3 parts hot water overnight. It will make the lichen soft again if there is anything viable left. If it’s really bad it will fall off before you can do the soak but then you havn’t really lost anything. Hair spray probably won’t help at this stage.
If you can make them resilient again, then use hair spray and ground foam.
Karl
Norman, for the $5 it would cost in materials at this point, what have you to lose? Get some El Cheapo Sticky-Poo hairspray and buy a bag each of two different shades of ground foam from Woodland Scenics, and have at them. If they stand up, cool, and you’ll have both purchased products to spare when you are done with the old trees. If they look terrible, you’ll not have wasted more than a few cents of materials, if learning something can be called a waste.
[:)]
I’ve found it’s OK to seal them with hair spray, but 3M spray glue holds the ground foam on the tree better.[2c]
If you find the lichen is too far gone to save, can strip the lichen off and reuse the trunks as you said. Either replace the lichen with some whispy poly fiber balls and coat with ground foam or glue some chunks of WS Clump Foliage to the trunks.
Nick
Oops! Did I say that? [8)]
Well I figured that I would give an update: I decided to experiment being that I wasn’t going to be out any money.
I put some water mixed with alcohol in a dish and placed two of these trees in it over night. Now the lichen is as soft as can be. Turned the liquid green but oh well. So now I’m just waiting for them to dry, and I think that they will be good to go.
Thanks for all the advice. Norman…