DIY Fake Wood...the cheap way!

[kueluck]

That is AWESOME!! Looks like ALOT of time put into one piece.

[Lady medusa]

Man those are awesome! Im kicking myself for not thinking of that sooner! Sludge monkey Your right about not using most yellows, red, green, and blue paint especially anything that says cadmium! But id figure one it was sealed it wouldnt leech anything. Have you looked into soy paint? Its supposidly completely non toxic/ eco friendly and is made of soy beans! It comes in all colors too. Im using it at the moment to make a fake coral reef for my crazy idea of a cal king enclosure( i figure since they look like sea kraits why not make a terrarium reef). I cant wait to see your tree! have u thought of using an air brush to paint some of your stuff? As u asked about finding a zoo job look on AZA website. They publicate job listings for zoos there. I worked at OKC zoo for quite a while and i can say our graphics and design crew never made anything nearly that impressive. Our mangrove tree in the aquatics department was a sad sight i must say! Super duper fake looking and falling apart. We made a "rain screen" to help cover the eyesore. In the herp department they made their own stuff but like most of us they used the traditional stuff. My department wasnt so lucky to do even that because of our constricting overhead