Place for a Leaf

From the first time I read the prompt, the word 'belong' really stood out to me.  Everyone ended up taking that in a positive direction, for lack of a better word.  I decided to interpret the prompt differently by incorporating the idea of 'detainment'.  In the end, detainment is really another take on belonging.  For my project, I wanted to make some sort of structure that would appear to be holding the leaf in place, but with a certain violence about the action. The first model featured matboard, rolled up as thinly as I could manage.  Then, at differing heights, I stuck them into cardboard as if they were spines protruding from the ground.   The leaf was then pierced into the upper prongs.  Unfortunately, the leaf was vastly overshadowed by the massive paper structure.  I decided to go back to a form which would focus on displaying the leaf, rather than overbearing it.  My second model was a simple leaf with strips of paper woven in.  The weaving had a good look so I ended up incorporating it into my final design.  In this design, I wanted to bring back the idea of detainment.  I took a strip of paper about 6 inches wide and on one end, cut parallel strips extending about 4 inches into the paper.  These strips were woven into the leaf.  At this point, the model was still a 2D object; I preferred to make it a 3D one.  I lined up the intact edge of the paper with a pencil and rolled it until the paper would retain its shape on its own.  In its final form, my design had a spiral shape in which the leaf was detained.  I say detained because, the form of the leaf yielded to the form of the paper.

Final design.