Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/04/04/carved-leaves-made-by-soldiers-in-the-trenches.html
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Neat. So, like, how was this done? Is the dark part carved into the leave, or the rest of the leaf scraped away? Is this done when it is still green? I just not sure how they make these.
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sometimes they’re called “feuilles de poilus”, or “tree leaf lace”
Just to clarify, “tree leaf lace” is not a translation of “feuilles de poilus,” these were just two different terms for these leaf carvings. Poilu was the nickname for a French WWI soldier, meaning “hairy one.” So it means soldiers’ leaves.
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From the blog post:
Soldiers used a needle or knife to whittle between the oak and chestnut veins, leaving only words or, sometimes, an image.
I’m not sure ‘whittle’ is the correct term, here. I guess they may have ‘poked’ out the leaf between the veins, with a series of small holes that aggregated.
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And here I thought most trench art was in brass…
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