ELLE DECOR Inspired

You know how we are flipping through beautiful magazines getting inspired, tearing out the pages and hoping maybe one day  .   .   .

I love looking through the magazine ELLE DECOR.  I have had a subscription for a number of years, loving what I see and read, but never able to afford any of the items.  Back in August I saw a picture of this wall sculpture.

     Beautiful, isn't it?  Looking at it, you'd think it is worth hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars, right?  Wrong!  After reading the caption in the upper left hand corner of the article, it says that the designer, Carol Fertig, created the sculpture from gold painted plastic leaves.  Hot damn!!! (Excuse me, please) So the wheels in my brain started turning wondering if I could find artificial leaves like that and how would I recreate it.

http://www.elledecor.com/home-remodeling/carol-fertig-new-york-apartment-design#slide-1

 The living area of Carol Fertig's Manhattan apartment. Fertig, a product and graphic designer, created the wall sculpture from gold-painted plastic leaves; the vintage Edward Wormley sofa is covered with an Indian textile, the 1960s cocktail table is by Paul Mayen, and the chair is by Bruno Mathsson.


 After looking high and low through many craft stores, and figuring out the cheapest way to make this, I settled on some bunches of leaves I found at the dollar store. 

To make this, I gathered:
16 bunches of leaves
gold paint
wood board
glue
staples
hanging clip

I initially got 12 bunches (5 leaves in a bunch), but had to get four more to completely cover the 24"w x 8"h board I found at a house construction site across the street.

I spray painted the board outside with brilliant gold paint. Next, I started to glue the bunches of leaves to the board first, but, then decided it would be easier to 

paint all the leaves before attaching to the board. That way I could make sure every leaf is covered with paint.

After painting the leaves I attached the dried leaves to the board with glue and reinforcing with staples.

My "sculpture" is not as wide as the original one as seen in the picture. But the overall dimensions of the finished product is 44 inches wide, tip to tip and 27 inches high, tip to tip. Depending on how many leaves you are willing to add, and the size of the backing, the final sculpture size is limitless.

When I come across some thinner leaves like in the Elle Decor magazine, and a longer board, I might try this again.  But for now, not bad, not bad at all!

Enjoy,






Linking To: