How To Get Started Pressing Flowers
The earth laughs in flowers.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are a few things you need to know when you’re new to pressing flowers. I’m hoping this guide will be helpful if you’re not sure where to start or you want to make sure you have beautiful flowers when they’re done pressing.
Here are the basic supplies of what you’ll need:
Fresh flowers
A flower press
Paper
Cardboard
Chipboard
Flowers or leaves to press
Fresh Flowers- You’ll want to have as fresh of flowers as possible. If you are picking some from your garden make sure it hasn’t rained in the last day or two. The flowers & stems will have a lot more moisture in them from all the rain so it’s important to give them a day or two to get rid of that excess water. Some of the easier flowers to press are: Cosmos, Ferns, Hydrangeas, Yarrow, Delphinium, Lavender, & Phlox. Most flowers with a single layer of petals will be easier to press than one with a lot of layers like a Rose.
Flower Press-the one I use as almost everyday to make my pressed flowers my husband hand makes. If you’re in need of a solid wood, high quality press you can click here to take a look. When looking for a press you’ll want to check for a couple of things. You’ll want to make sure it’s made out of a hard wood that does not bend easily. I’ve seen some flower presses out there that are being made with softer woods that will not press evenly and bow in the middle. Another thing to look out for is
Paper- You’ll want lots of paper to really absorb a lot of the moisture from your flowers. You can really use any paper you have laying around or getting ready to recycle. It can be newspaper, your child’s old school or artwork, or plain printer paper. I personally use printer paper & my kids old school & art work because I like the size and it’s pretty inexpensive.
Cardboard-Another thing to absorb moisture and help those flowers dry out quickly. I bought a pack off Amazon in size 8.5x11 to keep consistent sizing with my paper and cardboard. You can also always cut up those boxes your packages come in to the size of your paper as well. That’s what I did when I first started pressing for fun.
Chipboard -This is helpful as another layer to absorb moisture from the flower and also protects thin petals and leaves from pressing lines from the cardboard. I bought a 100 pack off Amazon and it works really well. This is basically what cereal boxes are made out of so if you have some cereal that’s almost gone you can go ahead and cut it up into the same shape as your paper to use.
Once you’ve gathered your flowers, its time to press!
First you’ll want to put 1 layer of cardboard, then 1 chipboard and then 5-10 pieces of paper down. The amount of paper I use between each layer depends on how much moisture that flower has. If it’s a Rose that I’m pressing with quite a few layers of petals I will use more paper than with a 1 layered Cosmos.
On top of the paper start laying out your flowers for your first layer. Do not crowd the flowers. You want to make sure they have enough space in between to allow some air flow to help them dry out quickly.
Next you’ll want to add 5-10 more pieces of paper on top of the flowers, then 1 chipboard and 1 cardboard. And that’s what you’ll do for each layer after that until you run out of flowers.
The amount of time that your flowers will need to stay in the press depends on a few factors. The first one is the type of flower. The more layers of petals your flower has and the amount of moisture that flower holds, will probably take longer than a flower with only 1 layer of thin petals. So you will need to check for how dry the flower feels. If they feel cool or damp to the touch it needs more time to dry. A dry flower will feel paper like. It’s one of those things that will come easier once you’ve been pressing for awhile.
The second factor is what the weather is like. If you are having very humid weather than it will most likely take a bit longer than during the colder winter months. Just keep checking on your flowers and it doesn’t hurt to keep them in the press for a bit longer if you’re unsure. If they are not dried out all the way and you stop pressing them then that’s where the petals or leaves can start to curl or shrivel because they were not done drying out all the way.
I hope this was helpful on your pressing journey! My next post will be about how I store my pressed flowers to keep them until I’m ready to use them on my next project.
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
