Happy Holidays!

December 17, 2022: Hi all. I'm still here, just been very busy (who of us is not?) I'm working on updating Maison Newton bit by bit, it's been awhile since I changed things up. Happy Holidays to all, soon the Winter Solstice will arrive and then the days will start to get longer once again, hooray!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Spray Painting Leaves

Hi Everyone.

I apologize in advance to the blogger whose site I visited but did not note the url.  She had put together an autumnal theme using real leaves she had bleached to a ghostly effect.  They were really cool!  But fragile.  Her idea of bleaching leaves gave me the idea that ultimately led to - taking a short-cut. What follows is the progression of my not-always-logical-thoughts:

I thought perhaps I might be able to do the same thing myself, only quicker than soaking the leaves in a pan of bleach overnight and then drying them out, and perhaps by-passing the fragility thing...  Ha!  Ha ha ha!  Joke on me. 

I first tried painting a bleach/water solution on to the leaves with a water color brush and letting them dry on newspapers spread out over my kitchen counters.  No change in color occurred.  Then I tried painting on straight bleach.  Nope, no change in color with that method either.

I'm not particularly patient.  Without doing any internet research on the subject, I decided after about an hour or so of futzing around with bleach and leaves to go for the gusto.  I collected many more wet fallen leaves on my front lawn and driveway (it was stormy outside last weekend and windy, there were a lot of leaves from which to choose).  I set up a spray paint area in the garage, which for me consists of laying layers of newspaper over the concrete garage floor.  I then set the leaves down on the newspaper fairly close together and yet separated. 




I spray painted them one side at a time, first using hammered metallic bronze and then a few spritzes of gloss white on each side to finish them up.  I did NOT dry the leaves before spray painting; I thought the water droplets remaining on the leaves might give me an interesting effect, and I was also thinking that if I put enough spray paint on the leaves, some of that moisture might be trapped on the leaves and they wouldn't curl up and "die" in a day or two.






It didn't take long for the leaves to dry.  Because of all the moisture still in them, they were easy to manipulate.

I pulled out of my stash a large "champagne" shaped decorative glass, filled it with hazelnuts, and then stuck the leave stems in, one by one.  This is what I ultimately arrived at:




Close-up of the textured effect of spray paint over wet leaves.

Overall, I was very pleased with how my leaves turned out. 

Another close-up.  It is so cool how some of the leaves turned out looking ghostly, some turned out looking
gold, and some turned out bronze-colored.


 

2 comments:

  1. Jan,
    I apologize for not stopping by sooner but I have been so busy!!

    LOVE this idea!! The leaves look fantastic!!

    Hugs,
    Deb

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    Replies
    1. Hi Deb,

      Thanks so much for stopping by. I visited your site earlier in the week and saw how busy you were over your vacation! Whew, you tired me out with all of your home projects! I like how you swapped out the ceiling medallions and some of the accessories in your master and guest rooms. Isn't it amazing what just little changes can do! I will visit again soon. I have not visited your Christmas pages before, I am looking forward to that, but I'm not in the Christmasy mood yet, that usually doesn't hit me until after Thanksgiving!

      Take care of yourself!

      Jan

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