Chongqing artist gives life to tree leaves

With a knife and a lamp, Huang Jilin sits still for more than 10 hours a day, busily carving tree leaves.

As a successor of Chongqing paper-cutting, a local intangible cultural heritage, Huang, 63, began to explore leaf carving in 2015.

"Leaf carving is a new form of paper-cutting," she said. "Every leaf is different and I can create art from the natural texture."

It usually takes about two months to turn leaves into artwork after a series of processes, including selection, cleaning, soaking, drawing, carving and drying.

"I really like creeper leaves, which are very similar to paper with gradient color," said Huang, adding choosing the proper leaves is very important.