Hey guys, I have got a seasonal DIY for you. You guessed it right we will be making use of what fall has in store for us. As fall is approaching soon for some of you, I thought why not give you a reason to pick one of the leaves for a home decor project.
As ironic it sounds despite being a big time plant lover, I should have tried leaf imprinting long before. And now in an attempt to save my reputation, I created this leaf incense holder as it is better later than never, right?
I am also a big hoarder of candles and slowly but swiftly I am piling up essential oils. Nevertheless, it looks like it’s just never enough, so I am going after incense sticks.
No, I am not feeling any guilt for it, as this week had been tumultuous. I was really stressed out. Things were not working the way I wanted them to and I am running out of time as usual. So to bring in the air of calm I resorted to my incense stick.
Materials:
♥ Air dry clay ( 500 gms )
♥ Any leaf with linings
♥ Skewer
♥ Brush
♥ Copper & Gold Gilding
♥ roller or copper pipe
Steps:
Roll out the clay with the help of a roller/copper pipe to 0.5 cm/0.20 inches of thickness. Make sure you roll it wide enough to place the leaf over it.
Wet the surface of your clay with a drop or two of water before placing the leaf over this will help the leaf stick to the surface better and in return help you to get your imprint uniformly. After placing the leaf, we roll over it.
We proceed to carefully remove the leaf from the clay and then trim off the excess with a sharp cutter to ascertain the desired leaf shape. My leaf was round at the end rather than pointed. So, I took the liberty to cut in a way were in I am able to get a pointed edge. Then with our hands we run through the jagged edges to smoothen them up.
With the help of a skewer, we poke a hole at the node of the leaf where we want our incense stick to go.
What we have now is a flat piece of clay, to give it a body we will with our wet hands go beneath the edge of the leaf and slightly push upwards. And I lifted the ending of the leaf at the node so that the incense when placed, is in a slanted position.
We leave our clay to dry for a day and once dry, we smoothed out any rough endings with sandpaper. Brush off any dust left on the surface of the leaf.
Now with the help of a brush we gild the leaf veins with gold and copper and let it dry for 10 minutes or so.
So this is how we use a fallen leaf to make this leaf incense holder that has a fall vibe to it. Notice I went for gold and copper and that fits perfectly with the fall season deco.
Not to mention, I was thinking of going full copper or gold. It’s just that I started gilding the veins first and they looked perfect so I had to skip that idea. But If you want you can go full on. Really depends on your taste.
P.s. I purposefully snipped off an aging leaf from my maranta/red prayer plant to make this incense holder.Cause when I have a jungle at home, why should I go out and pick from the ground( you see I am surrounded by evergreen trees, and fall is not a season that I get to experience in UAE).
Let me know if this DIY is what you needed for this season, to bring in the feel. If you make it don’t forget to tag me at Instagram @enthrallinggumption
