Carroll County Art in the Park in Westminster is this Saturday June 1 from 10am-4pm. I've got a lot of great things I'll have with me and hope to see you there.

We were at the cabin over the weekend and I collected leaves to try out an idea I had. I've seen a bunch of articles about people preserving fall leaves and wondered if I could do the same with green leaves and use them in clay.

The first step was to collect leaves. I tried to collect a variety of leaves so I could figure out what worked best. I collected from 4 different trees - 2 kinds of oak, maple, and linwood. I also collected blackberry, rasberry, gooseberry, and currants. Finally I collected what I think is a type of fern that grows in wet areas up there.

What I have found in the past is that the tree leaves hold up pretty well just on their own for a while, but the fern in particular has to be used quickly because it turns brown and very smelly after just a couple of days.




I had read that you should press the leaves for 2 days before preserving them so I put them in this old notebook with a few pages separating each.




We ended up coming home a day early since it was supposed to pour (of course it didn't) so I ended up doing the preserving at home. I used Mod Podge Matte sealer because I had a bottle, I didn't really care if it was matte or glossy. I used a foam brush and brushed 2 coats on each side letting them dry between.




The hardest part was getting it over the entire leaf without having it stick to my fingers or itself.