Finally using my 12 year old leaves from Connecticut!

I lived in Connecticut for much of the 1980s and one of my favorite things was the annual fall trek to the Heublein Tower with my husband, bff, and our children. Perched atop Talcott Mountain in Simsbury, it offers a fabulous view of the region.  In fall, of course, there is nothing more exquisite than New England foliage, making this trek a journey taken by thousands each year.  The last year we lived in Connecticut before moving south, I gathered a variety of leaves.  Small ones that I put into a rubbermaid airproof container and forgot about.  Until converting my studio last summer when I stowed them on a shelf with other "diamonds" offered up by Gaia, a.k.a. Mother Nature. 

David, my British hubby, has always thought my packrat ways not only incompatible with his tidy, neat, minimalist lifestyle, but also a waste of time and effort.  But, loving me as he damn well better, he has always tolerated this, as long as I could find a place for things.  He began to grumble last year when I claimed and took ownership of the patio room for my studio AND claimed half of the garage AND STILL HAD the upstairs bonus room for my international consulting business.  He tolerates it all as long as things are in their place.

I've got good news for him:  At Barbara Rembert's water media class the other day, I was introduced to leaf printing.  The idea is to take old leaves, place them on paper, douse with watered down paint, cover with crumpled wax paper, press them so the veins and outlines of the leaves make a fossilized imprint on the paper when they have dried.  Not only do you get the leave's imprint, but a glorious background too, if you use good vibrant colors.

I experimented with this method on Saturday and yesterday morning got busy with the Connecticut leaf collection and a myriad of other leaves I collected last fall too. Stepping beyond Ms. Rembert's primary colors, I dug up some metallics to try it with too, and even black and white.  What I've produced are some wonderful pieces I plan to use for the collage work, as small standalone images, and who knows what else.  I can't wait!

One thing the Summer heat is good for is drying things quickly so these works were dry by this morning.  Which reminds me, I gotta go water the garden.