Oh! I love the autumn, it’s truly delightful. Those bright, colorful and beautiful leaves add magic to nature. Ever thought of preserving the beauty of those fallen leaves? Well, folks at Longal Craft Company did just that. They give new life to old leaves by transforming them into exquisite artworks. Using some special tools, the artists carve old leaves into stunning portraits.
The artist
The innovative work is pioneered by the Chinese company Longal Craft Company. The trained artists who specialize in making innovative and chic art pieces, convert old leaves into one-of-a-kind artworks.
The inspiration
Inspired by the beautiful old Chinar leaves, Longal Crafts have added new life to them. The leafy medium of expression has seen everything the Statue of Liberty to Mao Tse-Tung to Che Guevara to some feminine characters to the great Chinese legends.
The material
It’s hard to believe that old leaves become canvas for this unique art form. Using special tools, the artists carve the leaves to create one-of-a-kind portrait. The most common material used in the leaf carving is the leaf from Chinar tree, a native to India, Pakistan and China, which has close resemblance to the maple leaves.
The artwork
This unusual art makes old, fallen leaves the canvas for exhibiting creativity and innovation. Every single leaf is hand crafted so that you get what is the best. The innovative artists take photographs of natures, landscape, animals and human and later stencil them onto the leaf. Ultimately, using special tools, the images are crafted onto the leaf. The process begins with collection of mature leaves in autumn. The leaves are then dried in a shady place for around 10 months. Prior to the initiation of the carving work, the leaves are boiled in very high temperature water for about 5 hours. This treatment makes sure that the bacteria and all the small worms are dead. The process of boiling can make the leaves fragile. Once the surface of the leaf is removed, the carved part looks like crystal and the veins become very clearly visible. Once the carving is done, the leaves require specialized drying. After the leaf carving artwork is dry, the leaf is waxed so that the leaf can be kept a considerable long time. This artwork can be kept for decades.
Glowing aspects
The art work on the Chinar Leaf exhibit extraordinary efforts put in by the artists. The portrait carved on the leaves display additional charm to the plain old painting. The artwork is quite impressive not only because of its beauty quotient, but also for using a sustainable resource. Every year in the months of autumn, trees around the world shed their colorful leaves, however did anyone ever knew that they could be turned into perfect canvas for artists to display their creativity.