How to Make a Four-Leaf Clover Specimen? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Method
The four-leaf clover is a rare variant of plants in the genus Trifolium (including the clover genus and alfalfa), and there are also those with more than five leaves, with the most being eighteen leaves. Among clovers, perhaps only one in five thousand plants has four leaves. Because of its extreme rarity, it has been given many special meanings. Now let us take a look together at how to make a four-leaf clover specimen!
Material Preparation
The materials for making a four-leaf clover specimen include dry old newspapers or straw paper, a breathable specimen press, solid copper oxide, 50% glacial acetic acid, and so on. When collecting specimens, you need to collect typical, complete, and representative plants, and carefully select well-proportioned, jade-green four-leaf clovers at a certain growth stage, so that the finished product will be a fine piece suitable for keeping.
Solution Preparation
Pour solid copper oxide into a glacial acetic acid solution of a certain ratio, heat it in a water bath at a certain ratio (the specific ratio is confidential), until the copper oxide and acetic acid form a copper acetate solution and it turns blue. After filtering the copper acetate solution, pour it into a wide-mouth bottle for storage. When using it, add an equal amount of distilled water to make a color-preserving solution.
Heating and Color Preservation
After heating the color-preserving solution to a certain temperature, put in the washed and arranged plants, and determine the time according to the texture of the leaves. Thin and tender leaves only need to be boiled for a few minutes, while thick and firm leaves need to be boiled for a longer time. The change in the leaves is green→yellow-green or brown→green. Then take out the specimen and wash it clean with water. If the ratio of the prepared color-preserving solution is inappropriate or the heating time is not controlled well, the boiled four-leaf clover specimen will turn yellow, or the four-leaf clover may even be ruined by boiling.
Pressing and Drying
After arranging the specimen, press and dry it. Wrap each fresh specimen with old newspapers or straw paper. For some plants whose leaf surfaces have obvious features on the front and back, part of the leaves can be turned over. After the specimen is wrapped, place it in a breathable specimen press and tie it tightly with rope, then press it down with a heavy object on top. On the second day, rearrange the specimen and replace it with dry old newspapers or straw paper. After a few days, take out the pressed specimen for making.
Color Preservation and Lamination
When making the specimen, choose mounting paper according to the size of the specimen. When mounting on the paper, be sure to arrange the mounting paper and the plant specimen well, and lay out the specimen reasonably on the mounting paper. A complete four-leaf clover specimen, made after color preservation and then sealed by lamination, can be kept for a long time and is also a handicraft with a certain ornamental value, making it the first choice for collection and gifting.