pressed flowers

I remember taking some long bolts and two pieces of really thick plywood with bolt holes at the corners, and some paper.  I then remember going out three or four times and collecting blooms and putting them in between the bits of paper and then cranking down the nuts on the bolts. 

I then have a vague memory of pulling some of those dried flowers out, laying them in the plastic that then gets run through the laminator. 

I thought they turned out really cool. 

Anybody else pressed flowers?

Friend of mine made her own gorgeous wedding invitations with pressed flowers and leaves as the "image."  Very elegant, and practically free.   

I have a flower press just as you describe.  I also use old phone books for the same purpose and they work really well.

I have done lampshades with pressed flowers,  pictures that I framed,  greeting cards, use them like decoupage on wooden items, use your imagination.  Not all flowers press well or keep their color.  Blue bells turn out really ugly, and fireweed turns a pretty blue.  I have a stack of old phonebooks right now full of flowers, but have not made anything in quite a while. You just put a bug in my ear.

Very intriguing pressed flowers, I never seen art like that, but I wanna see now. I bet that will be a great kind of art!

A favorite flower press of mine is made out of an old  baby cradle. It was damaged, someone was throwing it away. I took one look at the slatted sides and said "Eureka!" I cut both ends off of the two sides, use giant rubber bands cut from old inner tubes to hold them together. I sandwich newspapers in between cardboard, with the plants between the newspapers.

I have seen birthday cards decorate with pressed flowers.It's really nice art.You can do a nice wall hanging using this method....

About fifteen years ago when I was a child I traveled to West Virginia a few winters in a row, to visit a father's girlfriend's mother's home.  (Confused?)  Her bookshelves were a treasure trove of pressed flowers.  She would pull out books, open them up, and inside were beautiful flowers.  Thinking back on her backyard, she would have been an excellent person to teach all kinds of permaculture-related skills.  Physical separation and alzheimer's prevented me from knowing her further.

I think pressed flowers make excellent gift-card adornments!

One year for mothers day I took the bark from a paper bark eucalyptus, backed it with some stiff brown card and glued pressed flowers and sea shells from my travels in Hawaii. took a picture of my self and glued it in the middle. Sent one to my mom and sis, I wonder if they still have it. Using the paper bark was really fantastic it gave a nice earthy background to the flowers and shells. I used a paperback book maybe 200 page book.

I am just getting back into it for cyanotype creations. Cyanotype (ifyoudon'tknow) is an old-school photography methodology.  I use it on fabric at the moment. Most people know it from its use to make building blueprints. You lay out drawings, flowers, over treated fabric or paper and develop the image by placing it in the sun.I am just using an old set of encyclopedias from the 70s to press the flowers. I'm not too worried about the books because they're a terrible set of gardening books with terrible printing and constant mention of chemical/pesticide solutions. I say pressing flowers is best use. These are my first attempts. Having pressed flowers will make much better prints than these fresh leaves pressed with glass against the fabric during development.  I will be able to keep especially nice specimens for re use. The other little ones were just a quick squiggle to test timing in the sun and the opacity of a sharpie on a plastic sheet. My next run I will combine the two ideas, but this time I will try paint on transparent film. I am also thinking of pressed flowers in wax paper. I want to try cutting out shapes from those wax paper pressings... see if a silhouette shows up. I'm in the super excited stage of this, new for me medium!!

My sister in law does! I got one of her creations as a gift and I love it!

I'd always wanted a flower press, and finally bought one, late last summer. I had originally planned to make it, and just buy the acid free paper, but the paper alone was actually more expensive than the whole kit. Crazy. Anywho, I put a few late season wild flowers in it, and was thinking of building a pressed plant version of a materia medica/plant id/foraging journal.

I’ve been a flower presser for decades. I would stick them in my Bible to flatten. Moist ones would go between paper towels to wick the moisture and not wrinkle up the Bible paper (ask me how I know!). When I came across a flower while reading  I would try and remember where I got it. I finally had so many I moved them to my farm / Permaculture journals and just lightly glue them in. That has been wonderful. I will put them in cards on occasion too. People always comment. 😀 sometimes they are very thick like grass seed or daisies. I will put those under thick books to press. I guess someday i’ll make a real press, but I’m in no particular hurry.

I had a little flower press when I was a child and loved it. The press was small, hexagon shaped and made from wood with nuts n bolts. A bit like Paul's description in the first post. It had cardboard with tracing paper in-between to put the flowers in.
Last year I pressed flowers for my granddaughter for a Christmas present so she'll know the types flowers that grow here in Spain.
This time I used big heavy books to press them, but I got thinking about making a type of flower press. Thanks for the reminder! 😄

Back when i was a kid, folks used books to press flower.

What a nice surprise when I would select a book to read and find that it contained a press flower.  Lovely ...

Does this count?☺️

Harmony Dybala wrote:Does this count?☺️

Woah! that's special :P !
I tend to press four leaved clovers - they are nice to make cards with as a 'good luck' wish for someone. I used to have a plant that threw them out quite often, but not so much recently.

I have been pressing herbs and flowers for a long time. Have used books, but my husband made me a couple with squares of wood with nuts/bolts at the corners. I use cardboard in between groups of flowers and paper towels right next to the plants. While you do have to be careful handling them, the dried flowers usually hold together fairly well. Just saw an article in BH&G about using them to decorate eggs - think I might give it a try.

Does anyone have tips on how to preserve the colour of the flowers well? Sometimes the primroses end up green rather than yellow, and other colours can be disappointing when dry. I don't need them to be fresh, but it would be nice if they were a bit brighter when dry.

You can find recipes online about using glycerine to preserve color in dried leaves and flowers. As a plant taxonomist, I use a homemade plant press all the time. Because I am pressing specimens for inclusion in a herbarium, it is important to preserve details of flower structure as well as leaves and stems. I have tried to make it as much a creative endeavor as a scientific one by focusing on making quality pressings that display all parts of the plant well for others to enjoy and be able to properly identify what they might find.