Impressed by Leaves

Today was the quintessential Autumn day. Warm yet brisk. The sun shone such bright light but you can see and feel the difference from the sunshine of our summer days.......fragmented, shifted, indirect. The leaves tumbled passed us as the wind carried them across our yard. The littles chased them to and fro and came back to me with ones they thought were just so beautiful; their colors, their crunchiness, their shapes. We decided to place our favorites into a basket and bring them inside to examine them a little more closely.

Charlotte had really hoped to keep them all, forever!, and we would have if I had had enough beeswax (so we could preserve them in the melted wax) but alas! In the end we compromised on making a leaf impression and then finishing it with a little wax resist painting. It was a multi-stepped process (the littles love that) and took only about 30 minutes to complete. It was perfectly engaging for them and by the time we were finished, Charlotte felt that she had properly paid homage to the little leaves she considered such a gift.

 

First, we placed their leaves randomly all over a piece of paper that was

anchored down to our table with some tape.

 

 

 

Next, we rolled another piece of paper over our leaf collage.

 

 

Then, they rubbed some crayons all over the top piece of paper.

It was so beautiful to hear the girls "ooh" and "ahh" whilst seeing the leaves

pop out from under their crayons. They would rub harder and then lighter to see how different

the shapes and veins looked beneath them. It was really fun to watch.

 

 

Isn't it beautiful?

 

 

Charlotte wanted to continue on and began by applying some watered  down egg dye

to the leaf impressions. I kept our egg dye from Easter to use all year long for 

projects that call for water colors or dyes of some sort.

They do last for about that long before they get moldy or stale in color. 

 

 

Here is a detail shot of how the wax from the crayon resists the water color.

The crayon colors just pop right through and create such a beautiful prism of color.

 

 

We're lacking in wall space so I'm challenged to utilize other areas for displaying our works.

Here you can see I've used a bamboo shade as an easel for our leaves painting. The sunlight

coming through the window allows the impressions to really stand out.

 

 

"It's Autumn again,

Leaves whisper the sound of our past."

~ Andrea Rieck

 

 

What are you crafting this Autumn?

 

This post was shared on The Magic Onions
Friday's Nature Table