Making a Flower Press
I was saving this one for a little later in the season but inspired by our friends at erdhummel_naturgarten it’s happening now. I really missed having a proper flower press last year and chose to use big heavy books around the house with some lining paper, but quickly found the books I’d used were books I wanted to… use! So earlier this year we made our flower press out of scraps around the house and some trusty sticky glue.
Here’s a little nudge to get something more than a heavy book into your house to press your flowers before all the spring and summer flowers come out to play.
Materials Needed:
Plywood/wood off cuts/heavy cardboard
Jigsaw/saw (or scissors/Stanley knife if using cardboard)
A drill/hole punch
4 x bolts
4 x wingnuts
or if you’re using heavy cardboard you don’t necessarily need the holes but could use elastic bands or material scraps/string to hold it all together
Newspaper or other absorbent paper slightly smaller than your frame. Printer paper doesn’t work so well for this. Lining paper in the wallpaper section is good for this, as is watercolour paper, but it’s a little more expensive.
Cardboard scraps slightly smaller than your frame
Optional
Wildlife or gardening magazines - to find pictures of flowers
Sticky glue
Scissors
Pens/paint/crayons etc
First decide on how big you’d like your flower press, mark it out then cut it to size. Either with a jigsaw/saw if using wood or scissors/Stanley knife if using thick cardboard.
Drill 4 holes, one in each corner.
Be sure to use a drill which is right for the bolts you’re using. We already had some bolts so used a drill to fit accordingly.
Check all your bolts, nuts/wingnuts are all fitting ok before moving on to decorating.
Now it’s time to decorate your flower press. You have so. Many. Options for this! We used a gardening magazine and simply cut out pictures of beautiful flowers. Using a clear glue then stuck them to the wood. Here are some other options if you’re feeling creative
pyrography (wood burning) looks lovely if you have a steady hand
Paint or draw with markers
If you already have some pressed flowers, you could decoupage these on
Next you’ll be cutting squares (or whatever shape you’ve chosen to use) of paper and card to fit inside the press. These will be smaller than the frame itself to account for the bolts set inside the edge of the square.
The amount of pieces of paper will depend on how many flowers/leaves you’d like to press.
Note - be sure that the paper inside is absorbent. You’re aiming to remove water from the flowers in order to preserve them so you want paper which is good at absorbing water but not disintegrating. Newspaper works really well and is relatively cheap. Watercolour paper is the best but costs a lot more.
Along with your newspaper you’ll also need some pieces of heavier cardboard interspersed with the paper. These are to keep the flowers flat.
Assemble all your pieces of paper, place them between your front and back piece and close shut.
And you’re done!
Top tips for pressing flowers
First be sure that the flowers you’re collecting aren’t toxic or protected. Check this document of protected flowers and do your research first if you’re not sure.
Collect on a dry day when they’re free from rain drops or dew. Droplets can cause blemishes on your flowers
Leave your flowers with a little room to breathe for 24hrs before closing the flower press tight. It gives the petals chance to settle.
Thicker flowers will need you to change the paper around them a few times. They’re full of water, which left could leave you with mouldy flowers.
Be sure to space out your finds so they don’t overlap.
