Hey everyone, curious if there are any techniques you’ve used to bend relatively thick branches on deciduous trees? Especially brittle species (I have a dogwood that I’m hoping to add some movement to). I’m not expecting to get crazy, angular bends, but just general tips and advice for this procedure.
rotate while you bend
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Rotate while you bend as suggested but I have also found it helpful to run a second piece of wire in between the spirals of my initial wire so that there is more branch to wire contact when making then bend
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Depending on the size of the branches I would recommend wrapping the branch in raffia, or some other reinforcement being brittle. If the branch is fairly significant, one option is to use a carpentry technique to notch the the bottom of the branch with a very thin saw blade, cover the notches with some cut putty, wrap the branch with raffia,wire and bend it, the notches will provide the flexibility to bend, then heal to help hold the bend. This is radical, advanced work, and risky so practice on a piece of scrap branch first.
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