Take the ephemeral beauty of autumn leaves and make it last forever when you preserve leaves with the one simple, natural ingredient that is pure beeswax.
Beeswax is perfectly translucent on the autumn leaves, making them shine but allows the vibrant colors to show brilliantly. The beeswax also causes the leaves (and the whole house!) to smell sweet, and the process itself is so simple that my children can do the whole thing independently, although why would I want them to?
Preserving leaves with beeswax is fun!
When you collect your autumn leaves for this craft, remember that the leaves that work best are the ones that have already fallen off of their branches. They don’t need to be brittle and dry, but if you pluck leaves that are still full of life, then they’re still full of moisture, and they will eventually begin to brown underneath the wax.
If you do want to use green leaves, or you’re worried about browning at all, simply press your leaves for a couple of days first, either in a leaf or flower press or between the pages of a thick book. Really, though, it isn’t necessary if you just pick your leaves up off of the ground.
Other than leaves, the only other materials you need are waxed paper or parchment paper, a block of local beeswax (check your farmer’s market or local natural grocery store), and something to heat the beeswax with. Although some crafters use a double boiler, I stand proudly by my thrift store crockpot. Used only for crafting, my crockpot was cheap (yay!), and heats wax at a controlled temperature, so that I can trust my children to use it. If you don’t have space for another entire crockpot, consider buying a second bowl, dedicated only to crafting, for your regular crockpot.
Melt a block of beeswax in your crockpot–you’ll want to end up with at least an inch of melted beeswax in your crockpot, so if you don’t have a lot of beeswax this is a great time to go thrifting for those little crockpots that people bought in the 80s for warming potpourri–and dip each leaf in the melted beeswax, making sure to submerge the entire leaf and part of the stem.
Just don’t submerge your fingers!
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[...] Crafting a Green World preserves autumn leaves with beeswax. [...]
[...] just as with beeswax leaves, beeswax-coated paper is, while perhaps not archival, certainly preserved. A beeswax-coated [...]
[...] for them in the new house. I’ll bring them along. I may use this method to preserve my leaves: http://craftingagreenworld.com/2011/10/09/how-to-preserve-autumn-leaves-with-melted-beeswax/ Share this:FacebookPinterestEmailLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. Filed under The [...]
[...] Here is a nicely written blog post on the process. http://craftingagreenworld.com/2011/10/09/how-to-preserve-autumn-leaves-with-melted-beeswax/ [...]
as an alternative to beeswax you can brush your leaves with glycerine – the leaves stay flexible and keep their colours – translucent the same as the beeswax. use them for crafts or bookmarks. the glycerine is permanent and won’t stain.