The Bookmarks Made out of REAL LEAVES! – Save the nature beauty in your book!

About this project:

My project started with a journey from Sydney CBD to Hunter Valley(north of Sydney). I traveled there with my friends at weekend. Because the trip took a few hours, I had a book with me to kill the time during the traveling. As soon as we were on the way, I realized that I forgot to put a bookmark in my novel. Later on we stopped at a service station for a break. I saw very beautiful Magnolias at backyard, leaves fallen on the road. Then I picked one up and used it as ‘bookmark’.

I used that ‘bookmark’ till I finished the whole book. At the end, the Magnolia leaf was a bit crispy and easy to damage. I was wondering if there is a way I can keep it longer. At beginning I tried to laminate the leaf, but after a few days the leaf was getting rot inside. Therefore, I had to find another way to make it better.

The leaf gets rot usually because the skin and mesophyll tissue cannot last very long, which means if I can remove the skin and mesophyll tissue from the leaf, only keep the leaf vein, it can last longer even forever. Therefore, I cleaned and boiled the leaf in water till the green color gone and the leaf vein can be seen. Also a small brush was needed to brush off the left over mesophyll tissue. After that, I dried it under the sun, flatten, cut, design the picture, etc. The procedure takes about 10 steps and then comes to the final part–print the picture on it and laminate. Well done!

Key features:

1.About the Magnolia leaf : The magnolia is a very popular plant in Australia. It is easily grown in moist and a lightly shaded position. The leaf is oval and smooth edged. Usually leaves are leathery and thick. All the magnolia leaves I use for bookmarks are manually picked up and washed. I make sure the leaf is whole without damage.

2.Because all leaves are natural and real, we cannot find two pieces of leaves are exactly the same. This is the unique part of this craft. So the leaf bookmark you have will be the unique one in the whole world!

3.The length of bookmark is around 10-12cm. The width is about 5cm. I may manually cut the leaf edge a little bit to make it smooth and easy to laminate. I do my best to make it stronger and last longer.

4. The lamination can protect the bookmark and make it water proof.

5.It is nice to buy for yourself and to give to others as gifts. If you look for something nice, nature beauty, attractive and eye-catching, leaf bookmark is the one!

Source: Icrowdnewswire