a faithful attempt: Leaf Print Weaving

This is a nature weaving lesson I found on the Crayola website (they have lesson plans!) called "Weaves of Gold". which I've modified a bit. You essentially paint some paper, then paint the underside of leaves to create leaf prints, then weave twigs or grasses through the painted paper.

So we started off with a sheet of heavy/sturdy white paper.

Fold it in half both ways so you have 4 equal sections.

Paint the sections whatever colours you like. We used tempera cakes. Any paint will work.

Gather some interesting leaves of various shapes and sizes; make sure they have strong veins on the backside, otherwise you won't get a decent print off of it.

Paint the underside of the leaves with a thin, even coat of paint- we just used tempera and it worked fine. Just make sure the paint is not watery. You want it nice and opaque. Have students practice on scrap paper first until they get the hang of it. I like to use black for the dramatic contrast, but students chose whatever colours they liked. Make a leaf print in each section. I encourage the students to keep it fairly symmetrical or at least have the opposite sections match.

Let this paper dry. Once it's dry, fold it in half and cut some thin strips through it. I draw a line across the top, about 3 cm thick, that I don't cut through. This keeps the paper all together. You can measure the strips with a ruler or not- it's up to you. It doesn't have to be perfect.

The thinner the strips, the longer it takes to weave, FYI.

For the nature weaving part, I gathered some long, dry grasses (I think they're decorative landscaping grasses) that were outside the school. You could have the students gather twigs or grasses outside as well, of course.

We used about 15 'blades' of grass (weeds?) per artwork. You may need to cut them down to be just slightly longer than the width of your paper.

Then weave the grass through the paper: over, under, over, under and alternate for the next row.

After it's finished, we paint the back with white glue for extra strength and to keep the grasses all in place. You can trim off any ends that are too long or leave it au natural.