Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Skeleton leaf bowl
- 12 November 2014
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For detailed intruction on how I skeletonize leaves see the Tutorial below
Cover a bowl with cling wrap
Pour out wood glue into a bowl
Thin the glue with some warm water
For more details on how to unravel sisal string and how to stain the sisal see the Tutorials below
Soak the stained sisal in the glue mixture.
Spread the sisal thinly over the wrapped bowl.
Dip a skeleton leaf into the glue mixture.
Smooth the leaf to follow the contours of the bowl
Smooth on a second skeleton leaf slightly overlapping with the first
Smooth on the next leaf, again overlapping the first two
Keep adding glue soaked leaves. Make sure you smooth it down to adhere to the other leaves
Follow the curve of the bowl
When the bowl is completely covered smooth down the leaves and set aside to dry completely
Gently pull the cling wrap away from the bowl to remove the leaves
Remove the bowl
Peel away the cling wrap from the skeleton leaves
Lace fine skeleton leaf bowl ready to design with
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Tutorials
Remove the pulp from leaves so that only the vain framework remain
Cover a balloon with skeleton leaves to create a cocoon
Remove the pulp from the papery pod (sepal) covering the little berry of Chinese lantern plant so that only the vain framework remain
Skeletonized leaves can be shaped while wet to create shapes
I purchase a huge roll of sisal string to use... sometimes as string, but mostly I unravel it for the fibers
Soak sisal fibres in strawberry and black berry juice to stain it purple
Using fruit, berries, flowers, leaves and grasses to naturally stain design details for floral art relies on the same techniques as using paint or any other dye.
Related Designs
For a softer autumn leaf pod turn the leaves so that the bright side faces in when making the pod.
Barely there skeleton blossoms with Eucalyptus eyes for my Halloween design... Oh! and a Willow Paddle, which probably should have been the main Tutorial... but... well...