The best thing about art is that it lets us live in our own world, because it lets us express ourselves with whatever we want. In a way, we get to pick our own clay and decide what to make with it. If you have an artistic streak, at some point you may have wanted to do more with flowers than dip them in water and watch them wilt after a couple of days. Pressing gives you a way to preserve flowers for much longer, which opens up almost anything you can imagine. With that in mind, here are some things to keep in mind when working with pressed flowers, along with a few ideas for the magical artistic things you can achieve with them.
Understanding Pressed Flowers
Pressed flowers are simply flowers with the moisture removed through various pressing methods, which extends their life. The process preserves and often improves how they look. Like any medium, before you can work with them and express yourself, you need to understand them and how to handle them well.
Buying or Making Pressed Flowers
There are two ways to get pressed flowers. You can buy ones that have already been pressed, which leaves you with only the creative part, or you can make them yourself. Buying is the better route if you don’t have the patience to make them, or if you want the really expensive pressing techniques out there. Making them yourself is for people who are patient and want to enjoy the pressing process.
There are several methods for pressing flowers. I won’t cover each one in detail, but I’ll list the most common ones so you can research them and decide which suits you best.
- Microwave Method – ideal for DIY people
- Traditional Flower Press – ideal for DIY people
- The Iron Press Method – ideal for DIY people
- The Book Method – ideal for DIY people
Choosing the Flowers and Others
Art is about creativity, and creativity means keeping an open mind. I stress this because when most people hear “pressed flowers,” they assume they can only work with flowers. The methods above work on other vegetation too, such as leaves, stems, and grass, so experiment with whatever else you’re curious about and see how it turns out.
The best flowers for pressing should be fresh and dry, especially on the outside. The point is to prevent mold and unpleasant smells in the finished piece. A good time to gather the best flowers is early in the evening before dew forms, or in the morning once the flowers have dried off. Avoid picking flowers during rainy seasons or after it has rained. That said, if you have to pick them after rain, give them a day or two to dry out. Once you’ve gathered your flowers, keep them out of direct sunlight to keep them fresh.
These tips mainly apply to people preparing pressed flowers themselves. They also apply if you want to pick specific flowers and other vegetation and take them to a person or company to press for you. Being able to buy ready-pressed flowers doesn’t mean you’ll always find the exact kind you want. So for the times when you pick your own flowers and hand the pressing off to others, you now have a guide on what to consider.
Tips While Working with Pressed Flowers
Okay, now you have your pressed flowers and all that’s left is to get creative and express yourself. Here are a few tips on what to consider for working with pressed flowers.
- Handle with care
Pressed flowers are very delicate, and the last thing you want is to work with flowers that look like they came out of a goat’s mouth. If you don’t think you can be gentle enough while handling them, no one will fault you for using tweezers. Just keep in mind how fragile pressed flowers are so your artwork comes out exactly as you intended.
- Preservation and Longevity
Pressing keeps the colors and appearance of the flowers looking good for a fair while. That won’t hold true under normal conditions, though, so a few steps are needed to make your designs and artwork last as long as possible. To start with, dust, moisture, and sunlight cause the colors of pressed flowers to fade and hurt how they look, which then affects your artwork. To prevent that, keep your pieces away from all three.
One way to do this is to seal your work in an airtight container. That container can be a well-designed frame or whatever you come up with. There are also preservation sprays that help keep the flowers in the state you want for as long as possible. If you’d like a simple DIY option, try watered-down PVA glue. Mod Podge varnish is another off-the-shelf product you can invest in.A You can find more details and how to press flowers in this guide byA Roses Only.
Some Artistic Ideas for Inspiration
There’s nothing in particular you’re supposed to make with pressed flowers. It’s up to you and your imagination. You might even make something no one thought was possible with pressed flowers. Just get some and see where they take you. Here are a few things to get you started or to add to your collection.
- Portraits
- Collage
- Mosaic
- Luminaria
- Jewelry
- Coasters
- A smartphone cover, tablet cover
- Laptop lid decoration
- Computer monitor decoration
- Wallet or handbag decoration
- Tattoos
- Candles
- Wall Clock
- Just framed pressed flower artwork
- Dish decoration
- Pressed flower rings
- Nail Art
- Wall Paper Art
- Gift Cards
- Plates
- Trays
- Use the pressed flowers and leaves as a canvas (make some design on them)
- Glass Decoration
- Key card decoration
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much you can do with pressed flowers. Explore and be inspired.
