Balancing the curved stems of dried Autumn leaf tubes

11 November 2015
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Gather a few large autumn leaves with really long stems and set it aside to dehydrate and start to dry. For my design I gathered some Tulip tree leaves.

Roll the large leaf around a dowel stick. To make it easier to remove start to roll the one end...

... and secure it by rolling the other end over the leaf

Fold the stem over to curve back.

Wrap the next leaf to hold the previous one in place

Curve its stem over and wrap the next leaf.

Loosely tie the leaves and set aside to dry

Carefully untie the ribbon to remove the leaves

Starting at the lowest leave, carefully unwrap

Because the leaf is dried it retains the tube shape and the stem remains curved.

Hook the leaf over the edge of the container.

Slowly balance the stems all the way around the container

Balance the stems all the way around the container, spacing them out as you go along.

Secure with a tiny drop of flower adhesive if you want to move the container

Move the stems so that it crosses over in the middle.

Place a tiny water source in the leaf tube for the fresh flowers

See the detailed Tutorials below on how I make my own water source from drinking straws and how to wire the straw to dangle in the leaf tube

Fill with water and add the tiny oncidium orchids

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Tutorials

4 January 2011 Drinking straw "test tubes"

When you need to keep a tiny stem hydrated this is just what you need. If you can't find a suitable drinking straw... I also have an upgrade: tiny food grade pipe water tubes.