Thursday 22 May 2014

LXIII. Betula pendula, or: Leaves Don't Just Grow on Trees

Oh, wait... They do. ;)


If you need some tiny leaves for your bases, now might be the right time to go visit your nearest birch tree and harvest its fruit. I did so myself, encouraged by this great article I chanced upon on Reaper Miniatures website last year: 'Birch Seed Leaves' by Daniel Joyce. The article describes in detail how to prepare your own miniature leaves practically for free.


There are a dozen or so birch trees surrounding my bus station- I've been keeping an eye on them ever since they started blossoming. Yesterday I have determined that they were ripe for picking, so today I stopped on my way home to fill a small bag. Birch tree branches usually hang low, so it is no trouble at all to get to what you need.
After following the instructions from the aforementioned article, including baking it all in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 120°C and separating the "leaves" from the seeds afterwards, I ended up with this:



I'll probably give some of it away, but even with that this amount should suffice for my basing and terrain needs for the next couple of years...

4 comments:

  1. Very Good, I've been doing exactly the same the last few days, even looking for Brich trees with fruits of different sizes to get different type of leaves.

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    1. That with different sizes is a great idea; I'll definitely keep it in mind for next time.

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  2. Aha, thank you very much. I didn't know what time of year to do this, I checked out some local Birch trees a couple of months ago to no luck.

    Looks like a walk along the canal with the kids is in order :)

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I had no idea either, so I just kept checking on the trees about once a week since spring began. :)

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