OT: leaf preservation

[Another John]

I should be asking this elsewhere I suppose, but since this group is _actually_ the fount of all knowledge...

I've got some leaves (off a maple tree) that I'd like to preserve. Naturally they're going to dry out, crisp up, and crumble away unless I do something: any suggestions?

I was thinking in terms if a waxy substance rather than oily, since I'd like to mount them on paper in a frame....

Shall I get me coat and hoy off to uk.rec.pansyartists? (/I'm being self-ironic there, not insulting./)

John

[NT]

You can always press it between paper and dry it with heat, silica get or other desiccant. That's the classic way. It will end up fragile but can be stuck to something.

NT

[michael adams]

Embed them in clear resin to make paperweights ?

If you do this with freshly fallen leaves or even leaves picked especially then you can preserve all the colours. Which are one of the features of maple leaves.

You can buy embedding kits.

The basic idea is you pour a layer of clear casting resin into a mould. Let it set tacky. Then place the leaf in. Then pour more layers of resin in. You can embed almost anything including flowers insects etc. Without checking I don't think they need to be dried out

This is the first link I found there are plenty more.

adams

...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Another John saying something like:

Istr lanolin being used for this; some easily available source, like a tub of stuff, cold cream, perhaps.

[Dave H.]

ISTR my ex using glycerine to make them pliable after drying out? For delicate flowers, hairspray's the way to go.

Dave H.

[Spamlet]

Don't know what book I read it in, but have read that to produce 'everlasting' flower, leaf, and even soft fruit like blackberry displays, you just put them in a vase containing glycerine solution instead of water. Just google "flower preservation" +glycerine, and you will find lots of info. And they also say even microwaving works. I did actually do a blackberry spray once, and only chucked it away when it got too dusty.

S

[geoff]

In message

, Another John writes

Traditionally one puts them between two sheets of blotting paper (can you still get it ?) then in a book to press it

Well, lookee here, google brings up loads of hits

e.g.

[geoff]

In message , michael adams writes

Also if it's too moist, you might get mold growing in the mould

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember geoff saying something like:

Fungi Americanis is a bastard, right enough.

[Andy Champ]

Wossat then? (Google search for it, in quotes, gives exactly one hit: Your post)

Andy

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Champ saying something like:

"Mold"