Pressing Flowers
The garden at home is absolutely full of bright and beautiful flowers right now. Pressing a few of the flowers, I’ve found, is such a lovely and incredibly simple way to preserve the summer.
Here is how I pressed the flowers.
You will need:
• Wild flowers, stems and leaves
• Pressing kit or heavy book
• 2 pieces of non-glassy white paper/blotting paper
• Zinc edged glass sandwich frame.
Tip: When picking foliage, pick plants that will look good when pressed flat. Small, naturally flat flowers such as daisies, pansies and open-shaped roses will look better that large, thick booms.
How:
1. Gather a handful of wild flowers and plants from the garden or local woodland
2. Place the flowers between the pages of a book with blotting paper between the pages or put them in a flower press. Five or six layers can be put into a press.
3. If you used a book rather than flower press, put a weight on it
4. Wait six weeks and when the flowers are dried out, put them in a glass sandwich frame
5. To hold them in place, use a clear glue to stick them to the glass, just so they are less likely to slide around.
6. Then hang against a window. It’s that simple!

Microwaving Flowers
If you don’t want to wait a few months you can actually use a microwave to press flowers instead. This method is faster and is much better at preserving colours.
How:
• Put the flowers in between blotting paper or kitchen roll with a tile on top
• You might have to experiment with timings. I suggest putting it on a low power in 10 second bursts until the flowers are dried out.

Irving Penn
If you want to look up a famous artist who has worked with flowers, I’d recommend Irving Penn.
More Ideas
