1. Selection of leaves. The production of leaf carving leaves must be selected from the autumn and winter natural fall of the leaves, the flesh of the leaves should be thick, the veins should be clear and hard, the leaves are moderately thin and thick, uniform color without spots. Commonly used leaves are two kinds of Shanghai sycamore leaves and aspen leaves.
2. Level the leaves. Wash with water first, then use two sides of the screen to flatten the leaves. Leaves naturally air-dried leaves flattened, smaller volume, less likely to mold and broken.
3. Handle the leaves. Take out the desired leaves and put them into water to soak, the leaves become soft after 2-3 days. Then put them into lye water for steaming, stirring constantly to let the lye water penetrate into each leaf. The steaming process should master the fire and time to avoid damage to the leaves due to excessive corrosion of the lye water.
When all the leaves become black and soft, take out a piece with a brush to try to brush, if you can brush the flesh of the leaves, this batch of leaves even if the treatment is complete, and then immediately wash the leaves with running water on the brown dirty water.
If you want to use the leaves after a while, you can also soak them in water, which usually lasts for half a month. Since the three main veins of the sycamore leaves are thick, you need to cut off one-third of them horizontally with a small knife to make them flat for subsequent operations.
4. Making leaf carving. Modified soft-bristled pen, old-fashioned shaving foam brush, used fine bristle toothbrush, stainless steel tray, with these four things can "start work". The "template" pressed on the leaf, use your hand to hold it firmly, once moved, the graphics can not be right before the work is lost.
Use a fine-bristled toothbrush to vigorously brush away the surface of the leaf flesh, then sweep with a shaving foam brush, and finally use a flat-tipped brush for detailed work. During the production process, it was necessary to check the completion of the pattern through the reflection of the stainless steel tray.
After brushing at a high frequency for more than ten minutes, rinse off the dirty water with water and then absorb the water, a leaf carving work is completed. The work is then placed between the screens to dry naturally, and after half a month it can be placed in a glass photo frame for preservation.
