Okay lets get started,first decide how tall you want your trees to be, floral wire is about 16 - 18 inches in legnth, so with this in mind your trees will be half that highth beings you will bend the wire in half. Next take the pair of needle nose pliers and figure half way on the floral wire and bend it at this point, there will be a small rounded bend when you are done, I always take the pliers and finish crimping this closed so it will hold the rope tighter in the assembly of the rope. I have left over pieces of styrofoam that make good use for holding projects while working on them.

So to hold the wire open to allow inserting the rope into the V I use a piece of styrofoam ; Next I spread the V about 3/4 of an inch and stick the ends into the styrofoam to hold this opening. Take the hemp rope and cut a piece about a foot and a half long, I always use 1/2" or 5/8" rope, there are about 5-6 braids that make up this rope so you will undo these braids. Next cut each of these braids into about inch and a half long pieces. After doing this take a piece that you have cut and gently roll it between your thumbs and fingers until it fans out flat.

Next while holding the fanned out material the best you can with one hand, place the material into the V as close to the styrofoam as you can and and slide it down towards the bottom keeping in mind you need enough wire at the base to turn with your drill,(about 3/4"). Repeat this proceedure till the V is full. Next gently pull the V out of the styrofoam allowing the V to close down on the rope. Carefully squeeze the wire together clamping the rope in place as much as possible and place the open end of the V into a vise just enough to close on.

After putting the V into the vise and tightening the vise on it take your drill motor and place the chuck around the bent end of the tree just enough for the jaws of the chuck to close down on. Once you have got the jaws closed down on the base of the tree slowly continue to rotate the tree with the drill motor until it has wound all the rope material into what now looks like a bottle brush. Usually just as this is achieved the floral wire will twist off right at the vise anyway which is fine as for you have to trim the top back anyways.

Now that we have the tree twisted so it will hold together it's time to shape it. Using your sharp pair of scissors just start shaping the tree while turning it between cuts so you don't create any flat sides. I've always trimmed from the top down, don't know why but it seems to work the best for me.

Now that the tree has been trimmed up it is ready for paint, Once again I use dark or hunter green. I use a pair of surgical pliers to hold the tree while painting, This makes it easy to rotate the tree while I am painting it. You can also have a little brown turf builder available and while the paint is still wet very lightly sprinkle the tree, this will give a pine cone effect if one looks close enough.