Ever since the leaves began to turn and then fall, we’ve been collecting them with the senselessly acquisitive mindset of crows. Having accumulated a large paper bag full, we decided to display our loot in a festive manner and a cold rainy day seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it. I wanted to use just cardboard, leaves, and flour/ water glue so I could compost it afterwards, but that was too fussy a project to do with the limited time, patience, and skills that my assistants had to offer.
We started by cutting out 8 pieces to make a donut shape, and then taping them together (and colouring on the back with ballpoint pen: an essential step!).
We used eight pieces because it was essential to our plan that the corrugations of the cardboard be roughly radiating out from the center of the circle, as much as possible.
We wanted them to be this way so that we could insert the stems of the leaves into the cardboard. We had to cut or break off the ends of the stems to do this.
After the first ring was done, we cut out eight more pieces, chose a new kind of leaf to insert…
and stuck them over the joins of the first ring, one piece at a time.
Then we just added ring,
after ring,
after ring,
after ring,
until the last circle, which we did by gluing leaves directly on top of the cardboard.
Hope your holidays are safe and filled with the people and things that you are thankful for.
Thirtydirtyfingers 