Saturday, November 5, 2011

Leaf recycling!

falling leaves

hide the path

so quietly

Haiku by John Bailey

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Almost everyday,  we take the dog for a walk along this path in our neighborhood park.  A perfect place to experience the seasons as we stroll along….cherry blossoms in the spring, cool shade in the summer, colorful leaves in the fall and bare branches in the winter.

IMG_1613 Always a visual feast with endless photo ops, right in the middle of our small town!

IMG_1610 I couldn’t walk past this assortment of lovely leaves everyday without bring a few of them home to play with…..it all started out so innocently.  I’ve since learned there are about as many ways to incorporate leaves into art as there are leaves…..maybe not… if it’s your yard they are covering, then there are definitely more leaves.

First, I painted the backs of leaves and made prints.

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Then I dried and glued leaves onto book pages……..

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Then I pounded them to transfer the pigment onto fabric……

IMG_1594 Finally, I wrapped them in fabric and steamed them……

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Pounding and steaming are another blog in themselves. 

Who knew how much fun leaves could be, maybe, George Cooper when he wrote this:

October gave a party

The leaves by hundreds came-

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing and

Professor Wind the band!

2 comments:

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

OK! I'm intrigued. I have made LEAF prints, including monoprints, I have dried and glued them to book pages,I have pounded them, but never steamed them. I have never even heard of that and would love to learn more.

Karen said...

Amazing! I never would have thought to do all the things with leaves as you have, how cool! I love the different effects.