Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
- Treebeard the Ent
JRR Tolkien
Your best projects are certainly worth taking a very long time to build. Luckily, the genius programmers at Adafruit have taken the time to create and build the amazing Monster M4sk -- a plug-and-play TFT display "mask" that makes bringing life to your props and creatures incredibly easy.
Power it with a USB cable or battery and upload custom graphics with drag-and-drop. In just minutes, your project will wake up, blink a few times, and proceed to delight and astonish anyone who encounters it.
This tutorial goes into detail about the Monster M4sk setup process, and gives a lot of info about how I built the tree to house it. It's not a step-by-step tree-build tutorial, but it will definitely give you the tools and a road map of how to create your own tree or monster or movie prop using expanding foam and a few simple hand tools.
If you love trees, and you think there should be more of them, check out https://teamtrees.org/. All donations go directly to planting millions of trees to repopulate our planet. This is a cause worth fighting for! Before you embark on building your fake tree, let these guys help out with a few new baby real ones.
Adafruit Products Needed
Materials for Building the Foam Tree
Hardware Store
- "Great Stuff" brand expanding foam
- Large diameter (8"-10") cardboard tubes
- Pool noodles or foam pipe insulation
- 16-18ga wire
- Latex paint in brown, black, and light grey
- Zip ties
- Fishing Line & eye bolts for attaching branches to the ceiling
Craft store / Online
- Silk leaves on wire stems
- Moss & lichen for surface decoration
Tools Needed for Building the Foam Tree
- Keyhole saw or other rough-toothed saw blade
- Latex gloves & plastic sheeting
- Spray bottle for water
- Drill
- Large paint brushes
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