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Deron
At the Children's Museum of Maine,
I was involved with the creation of trees of several varieties. The
best of which is the one produced using Sto RFP (as mentioned in Eric's
reply). That tree is a large climb in and through tree. It was created
by applying the Sto to a textured armature of wood. Sto is a
fiber-reinforced non-cementatious plaster. When dry it is very durable,
painted and slightly flexible. The texture and shape was made with a
variety of techniques; layers of carved foam and shaped plywood
reinforced with mesh is the best. Do not use plain foam (blue board)
where kids will impact it. Sign foam is much denser and very carvable,
but it is expensive and creates lots of nasty dust during fabrication. Metal lathe is a very strong alternative for complex shapes like roots, however it is harder to work with and uses a lot more Sto which means long dry times.

I
also purchased custom made trees from an outfit in CA that I believe is
no longer around. A search on the web will produce some hits. These
used the cast bark which is great in the trunk section and less
successful as it branches.  They were relatively expensive.

We also used some real tree trunks, which worked great. Cheap and very realistic but no foliage.

Contact me if you want more info on the STO.

 Brewster Buttfield 
Prospect Design 
424 Fore Street 
Portland, Maine 04101 
207-749-7400 
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________________________________
From: Eric Yuan <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 7:06:44 PM
Subject: Re: Exhibit faux-trees

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Wow... that flex-bark stuff looks pretty cool!  Please share with the list
if you try it out. 

Deron, contact the Children's Museum of Maine.  They have an impressive tree
house exhibit made from "Sto" (reinforced stucco).  Alternatively, consider
a real tree that has had its bark stripped and the wood carved to look like
bark.  Beware of the climbing hazards though...

-Eric

*****************************************
Eric Yuan
Exhibit Developer
Children's Museum of New Hampshire
6 Washington St
Dover, NH 03820
(603) 742-2002
www.childrens-museum.org 
*****************************************

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