I've thought of that, but I'm not familiar with what kind of rocks would be able to take the direct heat without cracking or exploding.

Pretty cool effect of how the weld flows, I like all the little bumps and curves, very nice.

www Metalrecipes -- heat and beat to the desired shape, repeat as necessary.
warren

These trees are fun to make. Any one who works with metal regularly knows that sometimes the metal has a mind of it's own. I know this might make me sound like I do drugs, but when I make these trees I let the metal talk to me. It decides how the tree will grow, I just give it suggestions some times.

You wouldn't have to weld directly over the rocks. You could form the roots first, then heat up and bend around the rock. The one piece I did with a rock had no roots. I drilled into the rock and siliconed the trunk into the hole. You could try that with the roots up a little ways on the trunk, sink it, then wrap the roots. Does that make sense? Lin

That makes perfect sense. Leave it to me to want to do thing the hard way. I'm not happy unless I'm welding, so when it comes to putting things together I tend to over look any other options.