Leaf Me Alone

September 30, 2010 4:55 PM

Have you been thinking about what to do with all the leaves that have fallen in your yard? Try leaf art.
posted by Xurando (19 comments total)

These are gorgeous, but as a rule I prefer leaf performance art. Cannonball!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:03 PM on September 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Take them to the forest and set them free!
posted by i_cola at 5:05 PM on September 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Huh, and here I usually just fire up the leaf blower and whoosh them into the neighbor's yard.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 5:21 PM on September 30, 2010

Whoosh them into my compost pile, won't you?
posted by nevercalm at 5:22 PM on September 30, 2010

'Leaf art' sounds like 'Le Fart' -- har!
posted by mazola at 6:04 PM on September 30, 2010

what to do with all the leaves that have fallen in your yard?

I'm tempted to try my hand at this, but I think I'll start with some of the leaves that have fallen.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:19 PM on September 30, 2010

Is this something you'd need to have a yard to understand?
posted by birdherder at 6:29 PM on September 30, 2010

I prefer to put some leaves on wax paper, sprinkle them with shredded crayon, put another piece of wax paper on top, iron... elementary-school style!
posted by candyland at 6:31 PM on September 30, 2010

"Take them to the forest and set them free!"

You REALLY should have given Brick credit for that!
posted by HuronBob at 6:37 PM on September 30, 2010

I thought this post was going to be about my beloved Andy Goldsworthy.
posted by 1-2punch at 6:50 PM on September 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Wow, these are great! I like the carved leaves the most, perhaps especially because I've never seen that before.
posted by FishBike at 6:56 PM on September 30, 2010

When I was a little kid, in art class, we used to take the autumn leaves, fold a sheet of wax paper around a couple, and then go over the sheet with a hot iron, sealing them in the wax paper.

Then when I was a little older, I'd separate the green part of the leaf from the "veins" in the leaf, making a leaf skeleton, of sorts.

But this: woah. Great post, thanks.
posted by not_on_display at 6:59 PM on September 30, 2010

The cutouts are pretty sweet, but some of the stuff in this page ranges a little too far into bad thrift store velvet painting (that might be an oxymoron) territory for me to take it seriously as "incredible art."
posted by emilyd22222 at 7:07 PM on September 30, 2010

Mrs underflow worked with Pamela Olson for a while, making things like this out of a few thousand leaves.

She mentioned it's hard to distinguish colors after two days of staring at yellow leaves.
posted by underflow at 7:44 PM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

technically impressive getting pictures on a leaf, but most of it is sadly kitsch art.
posted by stbalbach at 7:47 PM on September 30, 2010

I really like the leaf art of your third link, the "art" one.
posted by nickyskye at 8:21 PM on September 30, 2010

Am I the only dummy who thought this would be piles of dead leaves artfully arranged on people's lawns?
posted by domnit at 10:20 PM on September 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Am I the only dummy who thought this would be piles of dead leaves artfully arranged on people's lawns?

Maybe, but I was definitely expecting something like leaves photographed artfully with great lighting or arranged in a picture frame. But just leaves. Instead we got works of art painted on and carved into leaves, which was a nice surprise.
posted by FishBike at 6:55 AM on October 1, 2010

I've been working on a leaf based performance art for a few years now. Basically, I set up some huge fans under the trees and force the leaves as they flutter down over to my neighbors side of the property line.

I'm calling it; "They're Your Problem Now."

So far it's met with somewhat mixed reviews, but I'm not really concerned with what others think. I do my art for myself.
posted by quin at 8:06 AM on October 1, 2010 [3 favorites]