This sculpture was created after being given a leaf skeleton by my daughter, which she thought too valuable to discard as she was moving and knew I would value it, After looking at many leaves I decided that the walnut tree had the most pleasing shapes, my own walnut tree which we have been growing for 20 years now is in the image behind the stainless version image devoid of leaves.

If you walk around a slightly shaggy lawn like ours in the winter you will see many leaves standing on end. These are ones left by earthworms who eventually pull them all the way into there burrows and use them as food stores for winter. 

So I had a shape and pose and obviously I would have to allow the wind to move the sculpture. I just had to draw a leaf and decide on a degree of solidity to get the delicate feel I wanted to achieve, This took weeks of full size drawing trials and errors and also getting the distortion I wanted as a totally flat leaf hasn't yet been created by nature.

I have made it now in both stainless steel for the big impact but personally I probably prefer the subtle look of the oxidised steel which changes in different weather conditions and lighting but requires light or space behind to look its best.