June 17, 2015
Concrete Leaves: Art Project Leaves a Lasting Impact on Mental Health
At Hopewell, we encourage our residents to express themselves through a variety of artistic outlets. One of these takes place in our creative art center making concrete leaves. Concrete leaves are beautiful ways to preserve nature while helping residents increase their patience, creative thinking and attention to detail.
Artistic expression helps our residents to understand their emotions through the creative process. While it increases self-awareness, it also increases awareness of others. This helps improve coping skills, cognitive function, self esteem and personal development. Self-expression through different projects has helped our residents grow as individuals.
If you would like to create concrete leaves at home, the instructions appear below. If you aren’t feeling artistic, concrete leaves, along with many other arts and crafts made by our residents, are available for sale in our Farm and Craft Market.
Our Market offers a wide variety of unique gifts and crafts that are made by our residents. You will find cutting boards, custom-made signs, bird houses horseshoe crafts, maple syrup produce and eggs when available and our hand-crafted concrete leaves. The Market is located at 9459 State Route 534, just two miles south of Mesopotamia Commons. The Farm and Craft Market is open from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
What you will need:
A large leaf, preferably with a detailed vein pattern
Plastic bin or large bucket
Medium or small bucket
Sand
Plastic wrap
Quick dry cement
Water
Rubber gloves
Wire brush or sandpaper
Acrylic paint and brushes
To make your concrete leaf:
Step 1:
Fill your bin with enough sand to make a mound at least as wide as your leaf. If the sand is falling and not making a good mound, add a little water to get it to stick. The shape of the sand is the shape that the leaf will take, so make it is as flat or rounded as you want. You can also get the edges of the leaf to curl by pushing down the edges of the sand pile.
Step2:
Cover the sand with plastic wrap. This will prevent the sand from sticking to the leaf and keep the concrete out of the sand.
Step 3:
Place your leaf on the plastic wrap. Make sure the side of the leaf you want to have the imprint of is facing up.
Step 4:
Wearing your gloves, use a small bucket to mix the concrete. Follow the directions on the concrete package for the proper water ratio. You will want your mixture to be about as thick as mud. Make enough concrete to cover the entire leaf with two inches of concrete.
Step 5:
While still wearing your gloves, cover your leaf with the concrete mixture. It is best to apply it by the handful, but make sure you pack it all together and tap it frequently so it gets into all the veins and details of the leaf. Don’t push too hard to shift the sand. You want to evenly cover your leaf with about two inches of concrete.
Step 6:
Leave your leaf sitting outside, in the sun if possible, for at least a full day. If you are unable to leave your leaf in the sun, let it dry outside or in an open garage for at least two days.
Step 7:
Once the concrete is completely dry and cured, remove the leaf and concrete from the plastic wrap and sand. Very carefully peel the leaf off the concrete. If your leaf is not peeling off cleanly, you can leave it in the sun for a couple of hours so the leaf dries out and will flake off.
Step 8:
Once the leaf is removed from the concrete, use the sand paper or a wire brush to smooth out the sharp edges. Allow the leaf cure for at least a week before you set it out for display or paint it.
Step 9:
Time to get creative, pull out your paints and make your leaf beautiful and colorful! We suggest acrylic paint, but we know many people have great success with different kinds of paints. If you are going to display your leaf outside, we also suggest sealing it with concrete sealer.
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