Peak foliage is fleeting. That’s why I love preserving precious foraged leaves so they can be admired all year long. Leaves (sadly) tend to dry out, curl up, and break apart after a few days in human hands—but by preserving them you'll be able to ensure they keep their color and seal in moisture to avoid cracking.
Preserving leaves works best if you start with already tidy specimens—leaves that are relatively flat and "healthy" or recently harvested to begin with—and is most effective if undertaken before the leaves are pressed flat. But if you've already pressed leaves in the past, or choose to press them before preserving, it's not too late! Preserving can also be done once they're pressed.
What you'll need:
- Foraged leaves, or groups of leaves on a twig
- Glycerin
- Surfactant
- Paper towels
- A few large, heavy books
- Wax paper
- Iron, optional
- Newspaper, optional
How to preserve them:
Gather leaves. Since it's very hard to know how old a leaf is when you pick it up off the ground, and because there's no cut and dry way way to tell if a leaf will respond to the treatment, it's best to start with a whole pile of leaves to see which end up working out. I've treated freshly picked leaves and they have responded really well and then tried on very dry leaves and they don't take to the glycerin at all—so my best advice is to start with a lot, as many healthy leaves as you can find. The bath is more likely to work on a leaf that's not completely dried out.
Place a gallon of water in a bucket or large bowl. Add 2 cups of glycerin, then 3 to 5 drops of Surfactant, which helps the glycerin break down.
One at a time, dip the leaves in the bath. Not all leaves will absorb the glycerin—you'll be able to tell by how pliable the leaf gets. You can still press a leaf that doesn't absorb the solution, but the color might not stay as vibrant over time. Note: If you want to preserve a leaf that's already been pressed, just handle it very carefully, using a small soft paint brush to paint some of the solution onto the leaf on a flat surface (not your hand). Then wait to dry.
Let glycerin-dipped leaves dry on paper towels. Leaf (sorry, leave) them to dry for at least 1 and up to 3 hours.
There are a few ways to press them:
In a book. Once your preserved leaves are dry, you can place them between sheets of wax paper in a large book—one that you aren't too worried about keeping pristine, as any remaining moisture might warp the pages—to make them stay extra flat.
With an iron. If you want to dry out your preserved leaves instantly, set an iron to a low setting, place the preserved leaves between sheets of newspaper, and iron over top like you're pressing a shirt. The heat will zap moisture from the leaves and flatten them pretty quickly, though you might see a little rumpling in their texture.
Now what?
Now that you've given your leaves a protective coating, you can do any number of things with them (beside just leaving them between the pages of books to find years later). Here are some of my favorite ways to use dried, preserved leaves:
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Frame them just as they are, secured to a piece of matboard with a few dots of hot glue (above) or...
Make cute collaged leaf animals and frame them (via Ko Ko Ko Kids)
Paint them in your favorite colors and frame them (via Emily Isabella)
String them together to make a garland (via Girls Life)
Make fall leaf crowns (via Handmade Charlotte)
Use them at place settings. I micro-punched a few pieces of nice cardstock to slip the stems through (above)—which could also be the start of some very cool stationery—but you can also tie their stems together in little leaf bouquets (below), even if you didn't decide to press them flat!
What do you do with pressed leaves? Let us know your craft ideas in the comments!
Original article and pictures take food52.com site
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