color palette from leaves

assortment of cards made from eucalyptus, and laurel bay leaves–my palette of colors!

As summer moves on and fall rapidly approaches, the foliage on deciduous trees has begun to change colors and shortly they will become the focus of attention signaling that autumn is here. During this time, something magical and delightful happens to the leaves of trees and shrubs that bring much joy to natural dyers. The colors in the leaves changes and become more intense and vibrant and they seem to adhere more easily to fabrics and paper. The pigments from the leaves this time of year provides us with a whole new palette of colors in red, gold, orange, and brown.

Whenever I am out driving or walking in the neighborhood, I have been gathering windfall foliage of different shapes, sizes, and ones that have interesting leaf venation. I especially like the leaves that are starting to turn moldy and showing signs of decay–they add a whole other dimension of texture and color to the print.

Below are a series of greeting cards made with these wonderful leaf markings.

I love the deep and distinct prints made from the seed pods on watercolor paper.

greeting cards all ready for the gallery–break a leg!

unwrapping..such fun!

scarlet oak (quercus coccinea), a deciduous tree with glossy green obovate to oval simple-lobed leaves

moldy rose and gingko biloba (maidenhair) leaves. The gingko merely gave a light impression on the paper. Nevertheless, it is still one of my favorite.

silver dollar tree (eucalyptus cinerea)

blue box (eucalyptus baueriana)–this was a recycled leaf.

jolly good prints from a recycled–love the colors and texture from the decayed matter on the leaf

smokebush (cotinus) and its fluffy flower heads

dark edges a results from a dip from iron water

an unknown leaf found on the bus stop

not bad from an unknown leaf…I call this nature’s mojo

deep prints from eucalyptus seed pods.

freshly steamed paper prints

Mirror, Mirror, who is the prettiest of them all?

who could it be?

perhaps me?

surely that reflection can’t be me

I am, I am, yes I am

another batch of cards from nature’s bounty in reds, golds and browns

array of spent windfall leaves

I found these old sewing machine cabinet drawers, circa 1920’s at an antique store. It is made of oak with lovely carved leaf detailing. They will be perfect for displaying my greeting cards at the gallery.

a perfect storage box for greeting cards

 

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