trees... with beads on...

Tree with beads on

There is a row of splendidly huge and ancient Plane trees lining a busy main road nearby. In the summer these trees are leafy green silent havens for crows, blackbirds, moths and insects, while far below the traffic roars past. They are beautiful, each one a different gnarly shape and I love to walk past them. In the winter and spring they are magical trees because they are festooned with beads. Really they are the seed heads that cling on to fine stems throughout winter storms and snow with amazing strength, only to fall and crumble into a million seeds when the weather turns soft and mild.

Tree with beads in in Dortmund

 When I was over in Germany, the road       outside the exhibition hall was lined with Plane trees too... obviously a staple for the parks and gardens authorities needing to line busy roads.
As another step on my occasional quest for beading nature (see acorns), here is a first experiment. I just love the juxtaposition of branches and seed heads against the blue sky, so I am wondering whether this has some design mileage. Firstly though, the practicalities of making some beady shapes and deciding if they are nice or not.

Plane tree seeds

When you get close to them, the seed heads are kind of spiky, in a really dense pattern.
I've used the gorgeous 2.8mm Miyuki mini drops in dark bronze along with 11 seeds in a soft grey and 15 seed beads in dark bronze... worked over a wooden bead.

The Branch is some rather intriguing wire with a soft foam coating which I found in a garden centre. I think designed to be soft against delicate plant stems that need tying back I thought it had HUGE possibilities for beading and was tempted to buy heaps, as it came in different diameters. Sense prevailed so my experiment with this is to see if it is strong enough to hold it's shape when also covered with beads...yes is the outcome there.
Not sure where this is going yet but thought I'd show and share.... I'm kind of liking the detail and texture.

beaded seed heads with netted 'twig'

like the texture...but not the herringbone stitch stalks