I posted this on a now-defunct forum several years ago, and thought it was lost until today... I found a copy of it on my hard drive! So, even though many tutorials on making leaves have been posted, I thought I'd throw mine out there too just in case it's useful for someone.
Step 1: Heat about a 10mm gather
Step 2: Roll the gather in reduction frit
Step 3: Melt the frit into the gather
Step 4: Hold the leaf mashers so the mashing face is vertical, and "droop" the gather into the masher
Step 5: Mash
Step 6: this is what the mashed leaf should look like
Step 7: Gently re-heat the leaf in the outer reaches of the flame
Step 8: Attach a clear stringer to the end and pull it out to a pointier leaf shape (if desired)
Step 9: Gently reheat and mash again, to reshape (if desired)
Step 10: If you used reduction frit, flash leaf through reducing flame to bring out metallic finish
Step 11: Heat rod where it attaches to leaf
Step 12: Pull & bend into loop
Step 11: Heat bottom of loop and pull rod free
Step 12: Marver bottom end of loop to flatten
Some finished leaves:
