Leave-ing

A big wave to everyone!  

I was out of town all last week but found some time to work on making leaves for Mrs. Rose...

It has taken some time to figure out which materials and techniques will give me the look I'm going for.

Thank God for all-in-one printers!  First thing was to copy my leaf patterns and reduce the patterns so that my leaves would vary in size...

I've decided to embroider some leaves and construct others by using wire, velvet and silk bias. 

I started with Hanah-dyed silk velvet cut on the bias and framed up the pattern using water soluble stabilizer called Fabri-solvy...

The stabilizer was too much for the silk bias ribbon but just right for preventing the nap from fraying on the velvet.

The range of colors in the hand-dyed velvet is giving my leaves lots of different shades of green which I am loving.

The greatest assistant to me has been this tiny gauge Wapsi ultra wire that fly fishermen use when tying flies.  It's significantly smaller than commercially available paper-covered wire, is rust proof, and comes in great colors...

I've been attaching the tiny wire as veins on the rose leaves and then cutting them out with a very sharp pair of scissors..

These guys are tiny and each spray is taking me about 35 minutes...

Looks like I've got a lot of leave-ing in my future.  

I'm off to play with Jim...it's our 19th wedding anniversary.  

And a huge thanks to all you servicemen and women...and your families...past and present.  

Thank You.