“Truffula trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula, treat it with care. Give it clean water and feed it fresh air.” - Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
I’m going to explain each part of how to make your very own Truffula tree. First, you have to get the supplies. You will need wooden dowels or chopsticks, Styrofoam balls, a base, hot glue, a feather boa in a color of your choice, paint, and then texture for the base (moss and terrain grass powder, for example). You will also need a drill, either a hand drill or a power drill, depending on what you have and what you’re comfortable using.
The Trunk:
“Those trees, those trees, those Truffula trees! All my life I’d be searching for trees such as these!”
I used thin wooden dowels for my trees, chopsticks are a great option too. You can make them as tall or short as you like, or they can each be different heights. If you want your tree to be a bit bigger then get dowels that have a greater diameter. The process will be the same no matter what material you choose.
I decided to make two trees so they wouldn’t be lonely. Cut your trunks so they are the length you want, mine are about 8” and 6”.
Before painting, you need to sharpen the end of the stick on one end. This point is what is going to stick into the tuft. I used a craft knife, you can use carving tools, or just a sharp knife. Be careful not to hurt yourself. You can sand this if you want to but as long as it comes to a rough point it will stick into the Styrofoam.
The color of the bark of the trunk can be one of two different colors, depending on your preference. It can be yellow (book) or white (movie). Both have horizontal black stripes that are evenly spaced. I chose to make mine white because I like how to looks with the bright color of tufts I chose.
Start with a base coat of the color your chose, yellow or white. I did about three layers of white paint, you may need less depending on the quality of acrylic paint you use. Once it’s dry you can either measure and mark where you want each stripe to go or eyeball it. I eyeballed mine so that each stripe was about 1” apart. (Do your best to make the stripe edges more ‘scribbled’ rather than straight horizontal lines. See the picture below to understand what I mean.)
The Tuft:
“The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk, and they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk.”
I wish I knew what butterfly milk smelled like, I guess it’s just another one of life’s great mysteries. Now, these trees vary in color, but they are mostly bright colors. In the book there are yellow, orange, pink, red, and purple. But color choice is up to you and may be limited by the color of feather boa you find. There are other tops you can use but I found that these are great because of the texture. If you use yarn or something like strips of tissue paper it doesn’t have that same fluffy cotton like appearance.
The downside is that using feather boas can be a bit messy because you actually need to trim them to the right length to cover your Styrofoam ball. They can shed quite a bit. It’s just something you have to accept. Art is messy, just like life. The first thing you do is wrap your boa around the ball to determine and estimate how long of a piece you need to cover it. You want full coverage so no Styrofoam is showing through. Cut the boa and get the hot glue ready.
One tip I have is to glue one end of the boa to the ball with hot glue and let it dry. This just makes it a bit easier when you go to wrap it the rest of the way, you don’t have to hold the end down. Once you have it ready start by putting a line of glue on the ball and then press the boa down so that you’re spiraling it around the ball for full coverage. Continue this process until you’ve completely wrapped the ball and no more foam is showing. You can also trim the boa if it is too long. Glue the end down and hold it all together for a bit of time to let the glue really set. Thankfully, hot glue doesn’t take long to harden. Now you’ve got your tufts!
The Base:
“Way back in the day when the grass was still green.”
Here there are several options to go with. One route is to use a small/medium flower pot, depending on how many trees you want to make. This can look great and it stands up very easily, but I decided to go with a more natural base. I found some great wood slices to use and dress up. The choice is yours but for this tutorial I will be going the wood slice route.
You need to make holes where the trunk will stick in. I used a hand drill to make the holes, you will need to choose a drill bit that is roughly the size of trunk so that it fits in snug. This hole will help the trunk stay more secure in the base. Just be careful not to drill too deep, just go about halfway through the slice.
The base should be a nice green. Because I’ll be adding a grass texture later I had to make sure the green matched the texture materials. So, keep that in mind. I painted the base with green acrylic paint, up to the edge of the wood. I didn’t paint the bark border of the slice because I like how it looks with that decorative natural edge. Make sure to let it dry completely before moving on.
Adding texture to the base has two steps, first you do some prep on it before the tree is assembled. Then once the tree is assembled you add a little extra finishing touches. The grass in the book is pretty short so I didn’t want to use too much of the grass powder I got. You can use several different types of glue, regular school glue or mod podge works well but if you want to be fancy (and pay more) you can buy glue they make specifically for terrain.
This step is also messy, so have a box or plate on hand with a tall rim for easier clean up! You spread out the glue in a thin layer (or thin spray) and then sprinkle the grass all over. You can repeat this and build it up to a nice thick layer, just let it dry completely between layers. Make sure you don’t fill the holes in. Once you have a layer built up and it’s dry it’s time to assemble!
Assemble and Finishing Touches:
First, stick the trunk into the tuft. Since it’s sharpened slightly it will go in really easily.
Now you are going to attach the trunks to the base. I put a tiny bit of hot glue on the end of the stick and then stuck it down into the drilled hole in the base. I held it until it firmed up and was secure. You can add extra glue around the base if needed to keep it sturdy, the finishing touches with moss will cover the glue. Take small tiny clumps of moss and really carefully glue it to cover the glue on the base of the trunk. It doesn’t take much to cover and looks great!
Now you have your own Truffula tree to love and care for. Just remember:
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”
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