From Fabric Comes Leaves
Today I worked out the design and, more importantly, how to fabricate a níspero (loquat) leaf. It was a pretty involved time…fortunately it was all trial and no errors (knock on wood – that just does not happen often). I will try to capture a few of these steps on a demonstration mini-vid. I began by fusing two pieces of synthetic fabric together at the edges of the leaf form. Then I singed all the outer edges and the edges of the hole I cut through both piece of fabric. While I singed the fabric I continued to carefully press the edges of the fabric together to create a melted bond (tricky not to burn fingers). After that the main vein wire and the smaller veins were stitched into the fabric. Finally some hand sewing to get a sufficient amount of puckering, a bit of stuffing at the stem end, and then painting the piece….and voilà the first níspero leaf. Now 3 more to go for the mobile.
