Creating Everlasting Beauty: The Art of Pressed Flower Masterpieces
Discover the Art of Pressed Flower Masterpieces
Unleash your creativity and learn how to transform pressed flowers into stunning, romantic botanical art with our simple, step-by-step guide. Renowned floral artist Georgie Malyon shares her secrets to help you preserve your favorite blooms forever.
The Rich History of Pressed Flowers
Pressed flowers have been treasured for centuries, with roots tracing back to 16th-century Japan. Samurai warriors pressed flowers to cultivate patience, harmony with nature, and concentration. Today, this timeless craft continues to enchant plant lovers around the world.
Materials You’ll Need
- Fresh flowers (such as pansies, limonium, hydrangeas, and delphiniums)
- Heavy books or a flower press
- Tissue paper or absorbent paper without an imprint
- Two matching box-style picture frames without metal fasteners
- Glue gun
Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Masterpiece
Step 1: Prepare Your Flowers
Begin by ensuring your flowers are fresh and free from moisture. If you’re picking them from your garden, wait until any dew has evaporated. This step is crucial for achieving the best results in your pressed flower art.
Step 2: Press Your Flowers
Cut your flowers and place them flat between several layers of tissue paper within the pages of a heavy book. Alternatively, you can use a flower press. Make sure to space out your flowers so that the moisture from one flower doesn’t transfer to another.
Once arranged, gently close your book and weigh it down with additional books. Leave your flowers for several weeks until they are completely dry. This process requires patience but is essential for creating beautiful, long-lasting pressed flowers.
Step 3: Create Your Masterpiece
Remove the glass from one frame and discard the backing board. With your glue gun on a low setting to avoid breaking the glass, put a blob of glue on each corner of the glass. Insert it into the frame glue-side down until it’s firmly in place.
Once the glue has set, gently arrange your pressed flowers on top of the glass in a pattern that pleases you. This is where your creativity can truly shine, as you design a unique piece of botanical art.
Step 4: Finalize Your Artwork
Once your design is complete, dot glue onto each corner of the glass, remembering to use a low heat. Take the glass from the second picture frame and place it on top of the first piece of glass so your pressed-flower arrangement is sandwiched between the two pieces of glass.
Once the glue has set, your pressed-flower art is ready to be displayed. Now, go outside and pick some more flowers to press, and voila, you have a new hobby! For more inspiration, visit Woman Magazine.
