Earthly Delights

Preserving Beauty with Holiday Leaf Placemats

By April Gonzales

When I was a kid we used to collect leaves in the fall. Sometimes I simply gathered up the prettiest ones that fell and made them into a little bouquet, but one year Ted Hill, my neighbor, won the largest leaf contest at school with an enormous 12-inch specimen that he searched for far and wide in the woods. I've always loved the idea of bringing the gorgeous autumn colors indoors for holiday déécor, and this year, for my niece and nephew, I plan to use leaves to make placemats that will not only keep some of my fondest fall memories and present colorful beauty alive a little longer, but will also entertain the little ones.

I remember a walk that I took one day with Ted's family. We jumped from rock to rock to cross the river by the old mill ruins and hiked through the woods to visit what they called the yellow tree one brilliant sunny fall day. When we got there, we all stood under the canopy and looked up in wonder at the golden yellow glow of an enormous, ancient sugar maple. The butter colored leaves illuminated by the afternoon sunshine seemed to cast light all around us. Since then, I have been entranced by fall color and am always trying to find a way to preserve it and use leaves and seed pods to decorate for the holidays. So, one old-fashioned craft project may be just the way to decorate the kid's section of the Thanksgiving table this year.

One strategy for preserving beauty is to collect all the autumn leaves you can find - they're so beautiful it's more a treasure hunt than a leaf gathering. Maples like Acer aconitifolium can range from pale yellow to deep red, sometimes in the same leaf. Pears are purple fading down to gold, with red and orange in between. Golden yellow witch hazels have large oval leaves that can offset the petite vermillion foliage of burning bush. Oaks are peachy bronze. Sassafras has a range of deep oranges and sweet gums are burgundy and purple. Once you have a good collection start to sort them for color size and shape. If it takes you a couple of walks around the block, or a few hikes around the town to do this, keep your prized specimens outdoors - bringing them in will only hasten their decline. The colors will fade to brown, edges will get crisp and, in general, they will begin to dry out and lose the beauty that you were drawn to in the first place.

The simplest way to preserve them is to iron an arrangement of leaves between two sheets of wax paper. Simply lay out your favorite foliage on an 18-inch long sheet of wax paper. But make sure to have a dishtowel under the bottom piece of wax paper or it may stick to the ironing board. Take a few minutes to play around with the shapes and colors, making sure to leave a bit of wax paper around each specimen so that when you iron the top sheet on, the two pieces seal around the leaf. If you overlap the leaves too much then they will just slide around inside a wax paper envelope.

Lay the next sheet of wax paper over the entire ensemble and gently iron at a low heat making sure to use the nose of the iron to get around some of the deeply cut edges of the leaves so that they are sealed in place. If you aren't happy with the result you can pull the wax paper sheets apart and try again, being careful not to rip the leaves as you separate the layers. Or if you are in love with your new dinner table décor, you can outline the edges in red masking tape for the final finishing touch to your Thanksgiving placemats. Floating a few leaves in a shallow bowl with floating candles can complement the kids' tableware project.

Admittedly some of the color is lost when the leaves are covered up by the wax paper. Gluing the leaves and then laminating them may keep the brilliant hues more intact. But again the question of drying out arises if you don't get down to the print shop in time to get this done. Adding one more step to the process may be too much amid the hectic holiday preparations, and perhaps being a part of the entire process will be more important to the kids.

Finally, there's bad news, good news and more good news. First the bad news: these placemats don't last long - maybe a few days. But once they've passed their prime, they're completely compostable! More good news? You can do it all again next year.

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