Make skeletonized leaves. Leaf skeletonization - blanks for original crafts

15.06.2019

Leaves for decoration. Photo

Skeleton leaves are great for scrapbooking and card making, and can also be used to create unusual flowers for decoration.

Leaves of maple, oak, laurel, poplar, ivy, magnolia are perfect for skeletonization. For this procedure, it is desirable to choose hard leaves. Below is the fastest and easiest way to make skeletonized leaves.

To skeletonize the leaves you will need:

Leaves (choose stiffer)

About 10 teaspoons of baking soda

Liter of cold water

Brush (toothbrush, dishwashing sponge)

Leaf skeletonization step by step:

Harvest fresh leaves that are tougher to the touch.

Dissolve about ten to twelve teaspoons of soda in one liter of cold water.

Heat the resulting solution on fire. When it boils, you need to put the leaves in it and cook them for 20-30 minutes. If necessary, you can add water if the solution starts to boil away.

After that, the boiled leaves must be rinsed in cold water.

After that, the leaves should be washed again in cold water.

At the end, blot the leaves with a napkin and put under the press for 1-3 days. You can place them between books.

Skeleton leaves can be dyed with food coloring if desired.

Tip: to lighten the sheet, you need to immerse it in bleach for a couple of minutes, it will acquire a light yellowish tint. Then you can paint the sheet with watercolors in the desired color.

Well, then, as fantasy tells, in the sense of using the resulting product for creativity. Such leaves can be used in scrapbooking, decorating postcards and more. Good luck with your creativity!

Skeleton maple leaves

Skeletonized leaves are leaves that have only veins left. The soft tissues of the leaf (scientifically "epidermis") are removed in various ways, and the so-called "skeleton" remains - an openwork mesh of veins.

Different types venation

Skeleton leaves can be easily bought in a flower shop, in a florist shop, in a decor store... You can also order it in a shop. It's fast, simple, convenient. Another plus is that the store sells skeletons of trees that do not grow in our area. For instance:

Leaves of religious ficus (ficus religiosa) or Bo tree (tree Bo), Bodhi, Banyan; pipal (Peepal or Pippal):

Ficus religious (Ficus religiosa)

Skeletonized Ficus Leaf ((Ficus religiosa)

Leaves of the rubber tree or Hevea brazilian (Hevea brasiliensis):

Rubber tree (Hevea)

rubber tree leaf

Magnolia leaves (Magnolia):

Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana L.)

Magnolia (Magnolia_acuminata)

Magnolia (Magnolia_acuminata) Mango leaves (Mangifera indica):

Mango (Mangifera L.)

However, buying leaves in the store is not always possible and not for everyone. Yes, and the choice is limited to only two or three types. It is much more interesting to make skeletons yourself!

There are many articles on the Internet on the topic of leaf skeletonization, but alas, all these articles are, in fact, just reprints of the same foreign master class. And not the best. Why not the best?

First, boiling leaves in washing soda is mentioned everywhere - not the most good option, since not everyone can find this powder in their city. I didn't find it either, although I've been looking for a long time.
Secondly, this soda copes with very few leaves. Some of our crafters use baking soda instead of washing soda, but it works even worse, if not to say that it does not work at all. Yes, some leaves are skeletized, but even just boiling in hot water without any additives - soft, loose leaves, such as maple, this is enough. It is generally ridiculous to talk about soaking in green tea - complete nonsense.
Thirdly, there are much more effective and affordable means.

So how do you actually effectively skeletonize leaves?

There are several ways:

Dry
Wet
Natural
Chemical

Dry way

The dry method is good when you urgently need one or two skeletonized leaves. You are tormented to do more, since it takes about 15-20 minutes of vigorous action per sheet.

The method seems to be simple - take a brush and beat a leaf with it. But! Having bought a special brush with a comfortable handle and after working for about ten minutes with this brush over a leaf, I was very upset - nothing worked out for me! And all because the bristles on the brush were made of synthetics, and besides, not hard enough.

So remember - the brush should only be made of natural bristles, the pile is not too long. Please note - the stiffer the bristles, the better! You can buy such a brush in the market or in a hardware store, they are usually designed for cleaning clothes or shoes. By the way, you can attach a long handle yourself.

We take very fresh leaves, without spots and holes, lay them out on a newspaper and beat them with a brush. You will break the soft tissues of the leaf, leaving only the veins or the skeleton of the leaf! The method is ideal for maple leaves, sycamore, Benjamin's ficus, poplar, ivy, etc.

Skeletonized sycamore leaf

Press-dried leaves can also be used. In this case, you will get not a skeletonized leaf, but simply an openwork one - too interesting option. And here just the brush may not be very hard.

Leaf skeletonization

skeletal leaves

Natural skeletonization method

The leaves are wonderfully skeletonized natural way- that is, nature itself creates such leaves, you just need to notice and pick them up in time.

How does this happen? And here's how - the leaves get wet in the rain, under the snow, lie on the damp ground, they are trampled on with heels, so they turn into a net by themselves. I usually collect such leaves when the snow melts. Also, the leaves can be "eaten" by some insects:

skeletal leaves

In order not to rely on nature and not to wait for a suitable leaf to come across, we arrange a natural skeletonization of the house. Pour plain water into a jar and put the leaves there. Close the lid, leave alone for about a month. As a rule, a month is enough, but sometimes even less time is needed. Then we take out the leaves and watch how the flesh of the leaf departs. If the sheet is softened enough, rinse it under running water with three fingers so that all the mucus comes off.

I experimented with Benjamin Dunetti's ficus leaf, which had been in the water for a month. After that, it exfoliated, and I simply removed the film from it, which covers the sheet on both sides. It turned out to be a very soft and delicate skeletonized leaf (although initially ficus leaves are very hard). The structure resembles that of a dragonfly's wing, doesn't it?

In principle, the lanterns themselves are ossified, naturally on a bush (from rain and snow) - you just have to not miss the moment and collect them in time before they rot. And you can also put them in water and after a couple of weeks get ready-made "skeletons".

And in this way it’s great to skeletonize physalis. These are such bright orange lanterns on a branch, florists love to use them to make bouquets of dried flowers.

wet way

If you need a lot of leaves, it is most effective to skeletonize them in a wet way. Pour the leaves with water and add the Mole powder (pipe cleaner). In general, any aggressive household chemicals will do. You can take soda, of course, but I do not guarantee the result.

So, throw two or three tablespoons of the powder into the water and boil the leaves for several hours. For maple leaves, an hour is enough, for sycamore leaves (and other hard leaves) - two to three hours. Moreover, the smaller the plane tree leaf, the more time it needs to be cooked.

Next, we take out the leaves and wash them in a bowl of water. Three fingers to remove the pulp. Rubber gloves with pimples also help. If the pulp does not come off - cook more. Hard leaves need to be brushed with a toothbrush on wooden board. At the same time, we constantly moisten the toothbrush in water.

What kind of leaves oskeleize well? These are, first of all, maple leaves, plane trees. Poplar leaves (black or silver), birch, linden, aspen, oak, garden blueberry, walnut, alder, ficus leaves are excellent.

Skeletonized black poplar leaves

Skeletonized linden leaf

Skeletonized sycamore leaf

Skeletonized silver poplar leaf

Chestnut leaves are very delicate, but they can also be skeletonized. You just need to straighten them right in the water, and then get them already straightened, prying them with a saucer or a wooden spatula.

After skeletalizing, I leave the leaves to air dry. And then I just iron it with a warm iron. You can immediately put under the press, or immediately iron the wet leaves with an iron - that's how you want. Very flimsy leaves cannot be shifted - they will tear or wrinkle. Let them dry first in a straightened form - the way you got them out of the water, and then transfer them wherever you want.

Chemical way

The chemical method - in fact, is also, in fact, wet. But here you do not boil or boil anything. Just fill the leaves with bleach (“Whiteness” will do) in half with water and wait. As they turn white - pull out, rinse. It turns out a white transparent leaf. You can also beat with a brush. And you can skeletonize the leaves by boiling and then bleach - it will turn out generally like the thinnest white lace - very beautiful.

Well, now the most important question - why did we actually do all this? Why are they needed, these skeletonized leaves?

First of all - such leaves are beautiful in themselves. And very unusual. An openwork cobweb made of veins, a transparent sheet, soft, as if made of fabric ... Of course, such a creation of nature undoubtedly attracted the attention of a person with artistic taste.

Here, for example, the artist Irina Ivi covers skeletonized leaves with gold or silver paint, then collects them into a composition in the form of a branch and seals them between two glasses. It turns out a very unusual transparent picture, in the depths of which weightless leaves mysteriously shimmer ...

From lacy, openwork leaves, you can make interior dishes! The artist Kay Sekimachi was so impressed by the beauty of the skeletonized leaves that she decided to use them to create simple, yet very effective bowls and vases. And the fact that all these thousand dollar (!) vases have already been sold out clearly indicates that the audience appreciated the natural beauty of the skeletons:

You can also draw on skeletonized leaves! V ancient india paper has always been expensive, but with leaves they grew everywhere and completely free. So the masters guessed to use foliage instead of paper. The leaves were processed by long soaking in water (wet method). It turned out an interesting material, thin, but at the same time durable. Then the skeletons were painted and sold.

And here is how the modern Kochetova Nadezhda draws:

Kochetova Nadezhda "Red Beauty"

Kochetova Nadezhda "Jay"

Kochetova Nadezhda "Song"

Kochetova Nadezhda Barn Owl

What is there to draw! Feather applications can be made on the leaves:

You can make miniature straw applications:

You can even print photos!

Do you think that's all? It would seem, well, how else is it possible to create paintings on leaves, and even skeletonized ones? Are there other options? Oddly enough, but there is! It turns out that images can be created on ordinary leaves by partially skeletonizing them! The way it is done in China: plane tree leaves (they are called "plane trees" there) are boiled in a special solution, and then the leaf is removed with a knife to the veins according to the sketch.

Leaf Carving Art

You can also embroider on skeletonized leaves! See what a gentle spring picture you get:

You can use them in patchwork or quilt (patchwork) as one of the elements of a complex background:

Gisele Blythe

Deborah Gregory

You can also use skeletons in felting - decorate imitation wool surfaces - felted scarves, dresses, hats, bags ... For example, the way Lyubov Voronina from the city of Ivanovo does it:

Lyubov Voronina

Eco-friendly wallpaper with a unique decor is made from skeletonized leaves. After all, each sheet is unique in itself!

They also make decorative paper:

Skeletons decorate postcards, albums (scrapbooking), passport covers, etc.:

Presents self made(Ekaterina)

[email protected](irochka84) "Envelope for money"

Evgenia (kjane) "Eco-postcard"

Marina Fazylova (m-tomcat) Passport Cover

They decorate the interior, wedding bouquets, napkins:

Bridal bouquet

Love (luba-pol) Wedding bouquet "Air mood"

Festive napkin

Skeleton leaves are great for decoupage of vases, cups, boxes, watches, etc.:

TARI (tari-elkiotter) Cup with skeletons

N@stenk@ Vase "Leaves in ice"

Elena Efremova (zzorik.ru) Cup with skeletons

Olga Koshkina (xsanf) Physalis salad bowl

Zuli Watch "Autumn Breath"

Murashka (Smile at your home) Wall clock and napkin holder

Oksana Mineeva (Kseniya) Hedgehog in the Fog Watch

Oksana Mineeva (Kseniya) Decorative plate "Hedgehogs"

For decoupage or felting lamps:

Skeleton vase

Wool "Skeleton lampshade"

Skeleton night light

Lampshades with skeletons

Mironova Inna (various colors) Lamp « Autumn forest»

Lamps with skeletons

In addition, they create Jewelry different ways.

For example, pour skeletons epoxy resin Earrings, rings, necklaces...

DarKera Necklace "Magic Tree Leaves"

"Pendant with skeleton"

NATURE IN A DROP (smolka-uvelira)

Anastasia Arinovich (bisenkan) Ice Leaf Pendant

Creative workshop "Mastyushka" Pendant " Autumn leaf»

NATURE IN A DROP (smolka-uvelira) Rings

Anastasia Arinovich (bisenkan) Earrings

Or they electroplated the skeletonized sheet with gold, silver or copper, creating a metallic patina of iridescent colors. It turns out amazing and unique in its beauty pendants ...

Katya Design Jewelry

Leonova Marina Leaf fall "Pomegranates"

Handmade by AlekSanta

Leonova Marina Falling leaves "Cat's eye and amethyst"

And of course, skeletonized leaves are used by florists!

The technique of skeletizing foliage from trees is quite simple. But the result is incredibly impressive. Thin translucent blanks are ideal for most types of needlework from scrapbooking to creating voluminous compositions from dried flowers. Below we will look at how to make leaf skeletons, and a couple of ways to use them.

Leaf skeletonization methods

Let's start with which leaves are suitable for skeletonization, because some are too soft and simply tear, while others, on the contrary, do not want to succumb to the master's work. The most pliable are usually maple and sycamore leaves. Leaves of oak or birch are perfect, you should try walnut with alder, ficus and linden look very nice. More decorative and of course spectacular blanks from mango, magnolia or rubber tree leaves will have to be ordered.

As for the process itself, here are several ways to skeletonize leaves at home. The most time-consuming of them is dry, when a straight green leaf is gradually beaten off and brushed off with a stiff brush.

For the patient, the soaking method is suitable. To skeletonize leaves, simply pour a jar of water and put blanks there. After about a month, you can take out the blanks and carefully clean off the resulting mucus and softened greens. From chemistry, bleaches or powders for pipes such as a mole are used. The most common method is considered to be the skeletonization of leaves with soda. But soda needs to be found not food, but more aggressive for washing.

Consider step by step the process of skeletonizing leaves with baking soda, since it is the easiest to find.

Put baking paper on a glass baking dish.

We measure out three-quarters of a glass of soda (we take the usual food).

Next, we need to bake the soda to convert it from bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. Baking time is about half an hour at a temperature of about 200 ° C.

Pour two cups of water into a saucepan. First, we need to prepare about a kettle of boiling water.

Pour the prepared soda there and as soon as the mixture boils, reduce the heat to a minimum and add the rest of the water as needed.

It takes about one and a half to two hours to cook such a soup from the leaves.
Next, take out the sheets and use a cotton swab to remove excess moisture.
With a brush, gradually remove the remnants of the pulp.
The last step of skeletonizing the leaves is to work on everything with whiteness.
These are the snow-white sheets we got.

Leaf skeletonization: crafts

So, we learned how to skeletonize the leaves, now we will consider several options for using this decor. The material works well with the decoupage technique, namely, paired with special glue and varnish.

Recently, the manufacture of various crafts from natural materials, including skeletonized leaves, has been gaining popularity. Such leaves are sold in needlework stores, but meanwhile you can easily make them yourself. Leaf skeletonization at home can be done in various ways. Details - in the master class below for beginners.

Skeletonized leaves are the dried leaves of plants with the epidermis removed. Only veins remain of them, so the skeletonization process is sometimes called "venation". This process can be carried out by dry and wet methods.

Dry skeletonization

One of the options for the dry method of venation is mechanical. It consists in the fact that fresh leaves are beaten with a special brush for skeletonization or a regular brush with hard bristles until the soft tissue is completely removed. However, this method is the least effective, because the leaves after mechanical action look sloppy, and the epidermis is not completely removed. In addition, only one or two leaves can be skeletonized in this way, since this requires a fairly large amount of time. In this way, you can process the leaves of maple, ivy, ficus.
Natural way. Drying and crumbling of fallen leaves under the influence of natural external conditions can also be attributed to the dry method of venation. Many leaves and fruits are perfectly skeletonized in this way, for example, naturally aged physalis turns out very beautifully.

Wet skeletonization

Skeletoning with aggressive household chemicals is the most effective way. Collected fresh leaves are placed in an unnecessary container, poured with water and 2-3 tablespoons of powder for cleaning pipes or other potent household remedy. The container is put on fire and boiled for several hours. For small and soft leaves, 1 hour of exposure to high temperature is enough, hard and large leaves require boiling for 2-3 hours or more. The cooled leaves are washed in in large numbers water, removing the pulp with your fingers or a brush. Sometimes re-boiling is required. The result can be seen in the photo below.

Thus, the leaves of poplar, maple, birch, hazel, linden are perfectly processed. Skeletonized leaves are air dried and ironed with a slightly warm iron.

An interesting way of processing leaves is to bleach them in whiteness. Natural materials become transparent and acquire an unusual white color. To do this, you need to mix water and "Whiteness" in a ratio of 1: 1 and place the leaves in this mixture. Heating is not required. Discoloration occurs within 10-30 minutes depending on the type of plant.

Some masters suggest skeletonizing with soda. To do this, the leaves are boiled in water with the addition of a significant amount of baking soda. Unfortunately, only some soft plants with thin veins can be veined in this way.

Crafts from skeletonized leaves

The processed leaves are beautiful in themselves, but they are especially good for making various crafts. Below is a master class on decorating a mug and making an original painting.

Mug decorated with leaves

A simple glass mug can be decorated with small skeletonized leaves.

To do this, we treat the outer surface of the mug with nail polish remover to degrease it. Using decoupage varnish, glue 2-3 leaves skeletonized and pre-painted onto the mug. Branches are best removed. When the varnish is completely dry, its excess around the glued leaves must be carefully scraped off.

If desired, patterns can be applied to the free space between the leaves using contours to create stained glass windows. After finishing the decoration, the product is left to dry in the air for about a day, after which we burn it in the oven. After firing, the mug can be used. It is not recommended to wash the outer surface with abrasive products.

Picture of skeletonized leaves

Natural materials make very stylish and unusual crafts, including paintings that can fit perfectly into a modern interior.

To make such a picture, you need a base white color(this can be a sheet of plain white paper), a few skeletonized leaves of a simple form, paint, sparkles and thread.

We paint the leaves in 1-2 layers with acrylic paints. Some leaves can be made monophonic, on others you can arrange smooth color transitions.
After drying, glue the leaves on the surface of the picture using any transparent glue. We decorate the leaves with sparkles, beads or semi-beads.
We cut off pieces of dark-colored threads and glue them on the picture to the tails of each sheet, by analogy with balloons.
After the glue has dried, the picture can be framed if desired.

We offer to see detailed videos lessons on different ways leaf skeletonization and manufacturing interesting crafts with your own hands.

From ancient times to the present day, a variety of handicrafts adorn natural patterns. Intricate weaves of herbs and flowers, berries and leaves often make a handmade household item a true work of art. Beautiful flowers and leaves can be drawn or embroidered, crafts using a real leaf look even more impressive. But a freshly plucked or dried leaf is not always in harmony with the intended product in terms of color and texture. But the thin openwork base of the leaf, which preserves its veins, can be a real decoration of the thing. To obtain such a base, leaf skeletonization is performed.

Where to get a skeletonized sheet for crafts

Considering that such leaves are today a very popular element of needlework and decor, the trade quickly responded to the existing demand. In specialized stores (flower or crafts), you can offer an openwork base of a variety of leaves.

If you can’t do without an exotic tree leaf, you can certainly find a suitable copy in the store.

But you can prepare such a sheet yourself, at home. We will tell you how this can be done.

First you need to select the leaves for this process. What leaves can be skeletonized? Almost any. Will you walk with your child in the park or on personal plot, collect those sheets that you like. Of course, leaves that have a beautiful shape will look more interesting in the craft: maple, oak, linden, chestnut leaves. But all other leaves of the forest or garden trees, fruit bushes, which you want to keep in the craft, are also suitable!

Leaf skeletonization methods

For leaf skeletonization, fresh, freshly plucked leaves are suitable. If you decide to prepare leaves for crafts and find some you like, keep in mind that it is better to start the process immediately after the walk, without delaying for several hours. When the leaf becomes very lethargic, and the necessary experience is not enough, the result may not immediately coincide with the expectation.

If you need an openwork contour in winter, when you can’t bring any leaf from a walk, a herbarium can help out. Because such a sheet can be made using a dry blank.

Having picked up the leaves, you need to choose the method that will be used to obtain an openwork mesh from a regular sheet.

There are several recipes for making such leaves:

Mechanical (dry skeletonization);
soaking in water;
The use of chemicals.

Let's get to know each of them in more detail.

Leaf skeletonization methods

To get an openwork mesh base of the sheet, it needs to be “freed” from soft tissues. Leaf skeletonization at home can be done in different ways.

mechanical skeletonization

With the dry method, the leaf is cleared of green mass mechanically. To do this, you need a brush with hard, preferably natural bristles. You can use an unused brush for clothes or shoes for this.

Putting the sheet on a paper or rubber base, lightly hitting it with a brush, gradually and gently peel off the greens from the sheet.

This is a rather laborious process that takes time, and experienced needlewomen do not use it as the main method.

Soaking leaves in water

If the craft requires not one, but more leaves, it is better to use another method, after soaking the leaves in water. This skeletonization option is time-consuming. It will not work if you decide to make a handmade gift by tomorrow. But preparing “skeletons” of leaves in advance to devote winter evenings to your favorite hobby, using this method, is a smart idea.

Pour water into a saucepan or a capacious cup, dip the leaves you like there, and leave the container for a couple of weeks. (You can change the water carefully!)

You will notice that the decayed sheet tissue is peeling off from its base. This base is carefully taken out, washed in clean water, and dried. In order for the sheet frame to be even, you can dry it between sheets of paper. The dried leaf is ready!

With the help of chemicals

To make the process of skeletonizing a sheet take less time, you need to use not just clean water, and add to it substances that accelerate the effect.

The soda solution, which is useful for cleaning the leaf from green tissues, must be saturated. To do this, add 10 to 15 tablespoons of soda to 1 liter of water, and then boil the solution for about 10 minutes. The leaves are “boiled” in this solution for about 1 hour, gently stirring occasionally. It is necessary to ensure that during this time there is a sufficient amount of liquid in the pan. Therefore, when it boils, you need to add water again.

After boiling the leaves for a sufficient time, they must be carefully removed, laid out on flat surface and remove the soft tissues of the leaf. The green mass is easily separated, and an openwork weave appears before us.

The process is accelerated by the addition of a product to the water. household chemicals, which are usually used for cleaning pipes, cleaning bathtubs and toilets, or bleach. Boiling with this method is not necessary, it is enough to add "chemistry" to a container of water.

The duration of exposure in this case depends on what kind of remedy and in what quantity it was found at your fingertips.

When it becomes apparent that the greens have become soft enough and have begun to separate, the standard procedure is repeated. The leaves are carefully removed from the chemical solution and rinsed thoroughly with water. The remnants of soft tissues are brushed off, and then the sheet is dried. Can dry it open way, or you can - under pressure, in which case it will become smoother.

So, the openwork sheet is prepared at home. In this form, it can be immediately used for crafts. But you can extend the processing even more, this will give the sheet a special charm and originality, and you will get different leaves, which will make the craft unique.

With this treatment, it is possible to change the resulting natural color of the skeletonized sheet. If you bleach the sheet, its brownish tint will disappear, and the openwork mesh will become white.

This can be achieved by lowering the sheet frame into a special chlorine solution. For 1 liter of water, add a little (8 g) of bleach. Keep the leaf base in this solution for a short time (about 15 minutes). The white skeleton of the sheet is again washed and dried.

And you can multi-colored openwork from the leaves! To do this, they are simply painted using different ways staining. You can use the usual watercolors or gouache, or even food coloring. If you have a can of spray paint- feel free to use it! And in a few minutes you will have a gold and silver leaf ready!

Crafts using skeletonized leaves

Having received a beautiful leaf openwork, you can simply admire the results of your work. But the best thing is to use these leaves in a variety of crafts.

Together with the children, you can decorate items in the apartment or summer house, prepare an exclusive gift for relatives.

The use of skeletonized leaves is not only pleasant, but also a useful activity for the child. The development of fantasy and fine motor skills, perseverance and accuracy is what a child will get when doing crafts.

Here are some ideas for your creativity:

You can decorate a gift card, giving it originality, if you use one or more skeletonized leaves in its design. Having beautifully laid out the leaves, they are glued and the surface is varnished.

You can also decorate a gift notebook, book cover, paper folder and other things for children and adults.

Do unusual gift for grandma or other family members the child will be able with your help. An ordinary glass goblet or vase will become unique if you decorate it with multi-colored skeletonized leaves. Relatives will be delighted, your child will feel joy, having managed to please loved ones.

In the same way, you can decorate the interior of the kitchen, hallway or nursery. Try it while on vacation in the country, and after gaining the necessary experience - and in the apartment. Use a repeating leafy motif on doors, pieces of furniture, single items, it will add style to your interior!

Original vases made of skeletonized leaves Skeleton leaf decoration

Here is another type of preserving a piece of nature that you have become aware of - skeletonization of leaves, it does not sound beautiful, but the result is amazing. Walk with children, be creative with your child, your life will become more interesting and brighter!

Leaf skeletonization at home: workshops and recipes

To create original ikebana using the scrapbooking technique, needlewomen often use leafy skeletons. Transparent, thin, openwork, like the wings of a dragonfly, the leaves always fascinate with their unearthly beauty. Such material can be purchased at a specialized store. Better yet, do the skeletonization of the leaves at home.

Crafts from skeletonized leaves are striking in their diversity. This material can decorate various postcards, wall panels. Most often, skeletonized leaves are used in the scrapbooking technique.

On a note! Only hard leaves are suitable for creating a skeleton, in particular, maple, walnut, oak.

There are three main ways to turn a green leaf into a skeleton:

In the first case, nature will do all the work for you. In autumn, the trees shed their leaves. First, the leaves lie under heavy rains, then under a layer of snow. As soon as nature pampers with the first spring rays of the sun, you need to collect the leaves. They are already softened. All you have to do is clean and dry them. But this method is not suitable for all needlewomen, since you have to wait more than one month.

The second way is dry. This option for harvesting skeletonized leaves is suitable if you urgently need one or two pieces. We carefully soak the leaf in cold water, dry it, and then scrape off the entire green part with a brush.

On a note! The brush must be made of natural bristles. Choose a brush with the maximum level of hardness.

The third method is wet, it is the most popular. Baking soda and harsh chemicals are used to harvest skeletonized leaves. It is about this method that we will talk in more detail today.

Leaf skeletonization: master class

If you decide to do this interesting view needlework, first learn the technique of harvesting material. Skeletonization of leaves is not an easy process. But when you master the basics of preparing sheet skeletons, you can comprehend more difficult ways, for example, create colored or transparent leaves.

The traditional way of skeletonizing leaves

Skeletonizing leaves with soda is one of the most popular ways to get rid of their green cover and leave only the skeleton and veins. Some needlewomen are skeptical about this method. But as they say, you never know if you don't try.

Advice! Experienced craftswomen advise choosing ficus or tangerine leaves for skeletonization. But Kalanchoe leaves are not suitable for these purposes, because they are too saturated with water.

Advice! The darker the leaves become, the easier it will be for you to remove the skin from them.

Step by step description of the process:

The rest of the leaves are left in the soda solution.

Do not turn off the stove, let the leaves cook on minimum heat.

We hold the leaf by one edge and begin to gently remove the skin with a brush. Take a brush with coarse and hard bristles.

We clean the skin from both sides. Here is what we end up with.

Put the leaves on a paper towel and gently dry them.

We lay out the dried leaves on paper.

From above we cover them with another sheet of paper and put them under the press for one hour.

Then we take acrylic paint desired color and hard brush. Color the leaves carefully. Distribute the dye evenly.

We leave the painted leaves in a secluded place until the paint dries completely.

Skeleton leaves using household chemicals

Check out another way to skeletonize leaves at home. The recipe is very simple. You will need a household cleaner. It can be any substance for clearing blockages in pipes or plumbing.

Required materials and tools:

cutting board;
leaves;
water;
brush;
household cleaning agent;
glass container with a volume of 0.5 liters.

On a note! The tool should completely cover the leaf.

Step by step description of the process:

We put on protective gloves, we take out the sheet from the solution.

We carefully rinse it with running water, dry it and keep it under pressure for one hour.

We color the leaf acrylic paint desired color.

Here we have such beautiful openwork leaves.

On a note! When working with chemicals be sure to wear gloves. If you need to discolor the leaf and make it transparent, use regular bleach or Whiteness.

Attention! It is impossible to set an exact time frame. It all depends on the composition of the selected agent and the degree of its aggressiveness.

Each needlewoman chooses a suitable method for skeletonizing leaves. Still, the skeletonization of leaves with the help of household chemicals is considered more effective. Boiling the leaves in a soda solution has one drawback - you will stain the stove. Such leaves can be prepared for the future, and then stored under pressure in a dry place. When working with skeletonized leaves, be careful, because they are very fragile. Creative success to you!

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Skeletonized leaves are called, in which, when the color-colored pulp is removed, one “skeleton” in the form of veins remains. Otherwise, such leaves are called skeletons or skeletonized. Skeleton leaves are used in design and floristry. They also serve as a good help when creating flower arrangements, collages, panels. Examples of work are impressive:

Therefore, take some time to pick up the leaves, so that after a free evening you can dream up and bring to life any composition you have conceived.

For the manufacture ofskeletal leavesit is better to use the leaves of plants with a high content of wax (maple, poplar). Skeletonization is based on the following principle: using special methods, soft tissues are destroyed, while the veins remain intact. How to make skeletonized leaves? There are several answers to this question. You can choose the method you like from the options below.

Method 1

This method is the simplest. The sheet must first be dried between the paper lining (the so-called planar method). The prepared sheet is laid on a piece of rubber and tapped with a clothes brush. Tapping is done gently, lightly. With this method, dry tissues will disintegrate, and the "skeleton" of the veins will remain. The remaining frame can be used to compose compositions or drawn on a piece of paper and placed in a frame:

Method 2

This method takes more time. Skeletonization is done with water. The leaf is immersed in water and left in it for several weeks. Gradually, the leaf tissue will disintegrate, only the frame will remain. The resulting frame must be removed from the water and thoroughly and gently rinsed under running water. Dry the resulting skeletonized sheet between paper (it is better to use filter paper).

Method 3

If desired, the process of leaf skeletonization can be accelerated. To do this, boil the leaves in a solution of soda. The solution is made according to the following recipe:

soda - 90 g;
lime - 40 g;
water - 1 l.

If you need more solution, then follow these proportions.

We mix the necessary components and boil for 10 minutes. The leaves are boiled, the procedure takes an average of 1 hour. Leaves need to be turned regularly. When water evaporates, it must be periodically topped up.

Skeleton sheet bleaching

Made by you skeletonized sheet can be bleached. For this, bleach is used. The skeleton of veins must be soaked in a solution of bleach. Solution recipe:

bleach - 8 g;
water - 1 l.

In order for the sheet to whiten, it must be in the prepared solution for about 15 minutes. Then it is taken out, washed clean water, are discussed.

From the resulting leaves can be made. Skeletons can decorate boxes, dishes and even clothes. The leaves are painted, if desired, covered with gold, silver or another color.