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Before you can start pressing some blooms there are a host of things you require having at hand. Here’s a list of all those necessities,
• A bunch of fresh delicate flowers
• A sheet of good quality paper for making cards (I personally prefer hand-made paper)
• Coffee filters
• The phone book
• Tweezers
• Glue
• Scissors
• A firm brush
Now the process begins.
- First, take your bunch of fresh flowers, sturdy with nice open blooms and leaves. Don’t go for too thick ones, applicable both for flowers and leaves as they take a lot of time to dry well. A few good examples of plants that dry very well and comparatively faster are, Buttercups, tiny daisies, California poppies, ferns, pansies and clovers.
- Next, press the flowers and the leaves carefully into a thick telephone directory. Be careful, see that none of the petals get destroyed or overturned. Some of the blooms may leave a slight yellowish tint on the pages amidst which they are pressed, so better use a book that is not that important. In case you want to protect the pages from discoloration, you can press them between flattened coffee filters which absorb the moisture in the bloom while they get pressed. It will take around two weeks for a nice pressing.
- Once the flowers and the foliage have dried remove them gently form the book with a lot of care. Now arrange them artistically on the sheet of paper. If you find some stems have gone array then you may trim a few with the scissors.Now remove the foliage and the flowers from the sheet of paper but remember exactly how you had placed them. Now brush a nice thin layer of glue onto the paper just in the places where you had placed the pressed flowers and foliage.
- Now with a very soft hand places the blooms back onto the places where they were placed previously. This may be a little messy. A tweezer may prove real handy.
- Now place all the blossoms and the foliage nicely stuck to the paper, see that each one lies flat on the surface of the paper touching the glue firmly. Now leave them entire array to dry.
So, the basic is ready for you. You can cut the paper into deemed shapes or fold into cards making nice accessories all together.
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I intend this article for all the ardent flower lovers who stay enthusiastic about the idea of pressing flowers. With this article you will come across some innovative connoisseur tips that will help you conserve some of your favorite flowers and your precious garden flora. Let me tell you pressing flowers can be a very exciting and inventive hobby which can at the same time relieve you from stress and dejection and also be a great method of earning a few extra bucks.
First, a few ideas…
Pressing flowers is a very easy art which can be effortlessly internalized. With a little intent attention and urge you will soon learn all the techniques making you capable enough to try your hands at a host of inimitable and lovely floral articles.
You can use the pressed flowers for making framed pictures, decorating greeting cards, embellishing photo albums and beautifying telephone directories. Even candles, lampshades and school bags can be festooned with sprays of pressed flowers. So the catchline is there’s no end to the list of what all you can make with pressed flowers.
How do you start??
Other than the flowers to be pressed and your undying spirit to press, some of the other tools necessary for pressing are quite simple and easy to obtain, sometimes being already there in the house. For example, a flat wooden board, heavy books for pressing, a few bricks, some paper glue, trash newspapers, a blunt knife handy while removing the pressed blossoms from the papers, etc.
What all can be pressed??
Pressing is most of the times taken to be akin to flowers and blossoms alone. But you need to know that flower pressing is not only related flowers, you can jolly well press other plant materials like,
• Leaves
• Ferns
• Tendrils
• Vegetable toppings
• Fennel Seeds
• Stamens
• Bits of barks
• Patches of lichen
• Grasses
One of my personal favorites is the fine seed heads of ordinary lawn grasses. When pressed these portray an exquisite touch of finesse. They add an unusual originality to the decoration. Even some of the common garden weeds look very pretty when pressed so you may very well try a hand at a few.
Keeping a cautious eye…
While you are sorting the greenery and foliage you intend to press do keep an eye on the individual stages of growth of those plants akin to various seasons. For example, a maple leaf collected in fall (reddish golden in colour) will look completely different from the one picked in spring (deep green). Again the tendrils of the Virginia creeper are very gentle with a beautiful tint of lush green in spring and it looks great when pressed.
Pressed flowers are just terrific when it comes to designing and ornamenting, but when actually dealing with dried flowers it’s better to keep a few things in mind.
The first point you need to keep in mind is that pressed flowers are flat and two-dimensional. Hence they look far better in a flowing, poised appearance, so plan your designs in that line-up. So the trick is to hit on the curves a little skillfully and the effect is sure to achieve your preferred effect.
Make use of the chic curve tendrils and the coiled leaves in your flower designs as these eventually add to the natural flowing look.
Pick up an extra stem and try a gentle curve with it. Try to bend the stem gently without breaking, run it flanked by your thumb and the back end of a scissor. But you can’t do this once the stem is pressed because then it will dry and will be too brittle to curve. So better do the curving parts before you start to press.
With pressed flowers there’s huge room for experimentation and that is exactly where the fun lies. So be creative and try out all your little tricks but remember that pressed flowers neither in a floral arrangement nor in a collage should look stiff by any chance, as that will mar their beauty. Place them in a way so that they look attractive and alluringly natural.
So now with the little tips we gave you make lower pressing one of your favorite hobbies, who knows someday it will be potential enough for you to think of a full-scale business from home!
If you are intending to press flowers quite often henceforth then there are a few common tools that you will need frequently. If you get hold of them and store in the attic or the store room pressing flowers will no more be an issue, just a few choiceable flowers at hand and this littler kit around will be enough to help you start off.
Here the tools:
• A 4” stainless steel tweezer: The tweezer will help you pick up the small and delicate petals of the dried or pressed flower and handle it with care without any serious damage to them. Be careful while handling with the harp edges of the tweezers.
• A large clear round sticker: The clear round sticker is handy rather the perfect tool while bending a blossom to make an envelope seal or an ornamental sticker.
• An extra-large empty clearpack: This is to store the individual flowers and the foliage with perfection while they are pressed and prevent any insect attack.
• A few heirloom cards: these cards generally used as thank-you cards or date reminders when stick on with pressed flowers or foliage the cards look great.
• A Pressed Flowers Project Book (not mandatory): This is a handy inspirational book that encloses about 15 pressed flower projects. A few of these may guide you well while you are pressing flowers and trying your hands at this craft for the first few times. It gives you a detail set of tips and guidelines for making framed pictures, trinket boxes, egg ornaments, bookmarks, note cards, paperweights and lampshades.
So now you know what all can help you or at least enhance your flower pressing purposes, what are you waiting for? Grab a few of these and get going….
Dried Pressed Flowers: Drying and Pressing Orchids
Author: admin
Orchids are the biggest and most assorted plant family on Earth. They generally grow in the tropical belt where the heat and the humidity are the favorable factors for budding. Orchids characterize few and far between blooming of flowers and have infested the planet aside with the dinosaurs since prehistoric times.
The sheer beauty of this plant from tip to toe, including the leaves, foliage and the blossoms makes it a favorite of hundreds and thousands of people all around the globe. Orchids grow very well if cultured in little pots in the nursery or in some place away from direct sunlight, a little damp is favorable.
So now we would like to share with all the orchid-lovers a very innovative way of preserving orchids which surprisingly extends their endurance making them your favorite embellishing items.
1. To start with, you can obviously do the pressing with a big heavy book and out some more books or weight on top. Or else you can put them amidst the pages of a sketch book or gardening book and place it under a huge pile of books or magazines. Yet again a home-made flower press may also aptly serve the purpose.
2. Aside to pressing you can jolly well dry orchids. Some of the methods are,
- You can always serve the purpose with drying agents. Flower drying agents are frequently found in any craft store or florist’s shop.
- One of the most common flower drying agent is the silica gel powder which leaves the flowers almost in the condition akin to when they were about to be dried.
- When drying with silica gel powder first place the orchid in an air tight container.
- Now sprinkle the silica gel powder over the orchid covering it completely.
- Check after some time, may be a few days, to see if it’s done or will it need some extra time.
3. Another way you can dry orchids is by freeze drying. Freeze drying is so far the best method to preserve fresh orchids retaining the natural exotic look. They retain the exact original look even when completely dried.
4. One reminder, do not go for air drying when it comes to preserving orchids. Not only will the blooms decay but it will take a long period of as much as a month to completely dry. So it’s better to vote out air drying.