Have a bounty of flowers in your yard and ready to make some unique art? Flower pounding might be a perfect project for you! It is a natural way to create colorful designs. Whether you want to pound flowers on fabric or paper, the basic process is the same,
Start by selecting plant materials from your garden or your favorite flower shop. Then, decide if you want to transfer the botanical prints to a substrate of fabric or paper. Gather your supplies and pound away! The flower pigment transfers from the plant material to the substrate by pounding with a mallet or hammer.
The craft of pounding flowers is a very simple technique with great results!
In this tutorial, we’ll focus on flower pounding on fabric since it has a few extra steps.
Selecting flowers and leaves for flower pounding
Picking your plant material is one of the fun parts of this project! Take a walk around your yard and cut flowers and leaves that you might want to try to transfer their design to your substrate.
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Plan your flower picking and pounding for spring / summer when your flowers are at their peak. We tried it first in early fall and many of the flowers were too dry to get a good transfer of color.
Flowers with thinner petals or flat petals tend to work best. Think poppies, pansies, roses and more.
Plan your garden for next year with bright daisies and fresh blooms. Add some geraniums and use their petals for beautiful results. Black-eyed susans are fun to pound! Rose petals of different colors can make some great designs. Try different flowers and see what you like the best!
Prepare a piece of fabric and test samples before picking a bundle for your pounding.
Preparing your fabric or paper for pounding
Let’s start with paper. Select a heavier-weight paper that doesn’t have a finish. A perfect paper is a piece of water-color paper that will absorb the pigments from the plant materials.
Fabric is best with some preparation. You’ll want to wash the fabric to remove any finishes from the fabric. If you have the supplies and the time, you’ll be more successful if you soak your fabric in an alum bath before pounding. See the directions below.
Finishing your flower pounded art
Whether you pounded on paper or fabric, you want to set your design.
On fabric, you’ll want to press it with a hot iron. Lay a paper towel on top of your fabric and press for 2-3 minutes to set the pigments in the fabric. Then, if you soaked the fabric in an alum solution, you’ll want to rinse with clean water and hang to dry. Then, press one more time before incorporating into your project.
The heat helps set the plant pigments. And, you’ll want to rinse out the alum. It helps the pigments hold to the fibers, but over time can degrade your fabric.
For pounding on paper, you can leave it as it is. If you’d like you can spray a fixative over the design – your preference.
With both substrates, feel free to come in with pencils or markers to highlight areas or add elements to your design.
How to Flower Pound on Fabric
Learn how flower pound on fabric with our step-by-step instructions. Make flower art with an assortment of cut flowers.
This is a perfect craft when the fresh blooms are flourishing in your garden.
Materials
- Fabric prepared with an alum soak. Best to use a pale color. We used white muslin. You'll want to select cotton fabric, or any natural fiber.
- 2 teaspoons Alum, to soak the fabric
- Fresh flowers and leaves to pound
- Plastic garbage bag - prefer NON-scented (smell the flowers, not the bag!)
- Parchment paper
Tools
- Flat surface for pounding, a piece of wood or cutting board. We used 24 x 24 pieced of wood picked up at the local hardware store
- Bucket for soaking the fabric
- Rubber mallet
- Optional: colored pencils
Instructions
- Start by preparing your fabric. Put it through the washer and dryer with detergent. Don't use a dryer sheet in the dryer. This is to remove any finish from the fabric so it will take the pigments better.
Next, prepare the alum solution to soak the fabric. Mix 2 teaspoons of Alum powder into a gallon of water in a bucket. NOTE: Wear a mask while working with the alum powder. And, use gloves when mixing and handling the wet alum-soaked fabric.
Soak your fabric for at least 4 hours, making sure that it is totally submerged in the alum mixture.
With the fabric dripping wet, hang it to dry.
Once it is dry, press the alum-treated fabric. Use a piece of parchment paper on both sides of your fabric so that you don't get alum on your ironing board and iron. - Now you are ready to collect your flowers and leaves! See the information above about selecting plant materials.
- Layer your flat surface with the plastic on top, then your treated fabric. Arrange some of your plant materials. Cover with parchment paper. Here I'm helping hold the parchment paper in place - it was a windy day when we were working!
- Here is pounding in progress. You know it is working when you can see the pigment spread onto the fabric and parchment paper.
- This is a project for makers of all ages!
- Pounding away!
- Feel free to lift the paper, adjust or add more plant materials and pound away!
Here is work in progress. - See the purple flower and the image it makes on the fabric.
- Keep adding and pounding until your design is complete.
- When you are happy with your design, hang your pounded fabric on a clothesline, or lay somewhere to dry. The pigments are still wet and need to dry.
- Once the pigments are dry, time to go back to the ironing board. Layer your flower pounded fabric between two layers of parchment paper and heat set the pigments into the fabric. You may see some of the color change - some get brighter, some fade a bit.
- Let your fabrics set for 3-4 days. Then you'll want to rinse them out in clean water to remove the alum.
Have fun incorporating your new botanical fabrics in your next project!
Notes
You can find alum at fiber art supply stores like Dharma Trading. It is also available in farm supply stores.
How to flower pound on paper
- You’ll want a good quality water color paper that will absorb the plant material pigments.
- Gather your flower and plant materials.
- Set up your work area with a flat surface, like a cutting board or piece of wood. Layer a non-scented plastic bag over the hard surface.
- Layer your water color paper over the plastic.
- Place your flower and plant materials on top of the paper.
- Put a layer of parchment over the flowers and plants.
- Get your rubber mallet and start pounding!
- You’ll see the pigments begin to migrate into the paper. Feel free to lift the parchment paper and take a look at the progress of your design.
- Keep adding flowers and greenery and pound until you are happy with your design.
- Let the pigments dry on the paper. If you’d like, you can spray a fixative over the design to make sure it is set.
Tips and ideas for flower pounding
- You’ll want to remove the plant material from your substrate. It’s fairly easy to remove it with your fingers. Delicate flowers might be easier if you use a pair of tweezers.
- Purchase watercolor greeting cards and flower pound spring flowers to make unique note cards.
- Make wall art with your botanical impressions.
- Mom would love a custom card with her favorite flowers for Mother’s day.
- You can use masking tape or painter’s tape to secure the fabric or paper to the plastic. We found that the layers didn’t shift much. Our issue was we were playing on a windy day!
- Some tutorials we read use wax paper instead of parchment paper. We found that the wax paper left wax residue on the botanical impressions. We preferred the parchment paper.
- Purchase blank linen tea towels for pounding and make great small gifts for your friends and family.
- Some flowers work better with this surface design method with taking the flowers petals individually to pound.
- Make wearable art by pounding on a shirt, jacket or white jeans.
- Take the wedding bouquet and make memory art for the bride and groom.
I don’t have a rubber mallet. Can I use a hammer?
Yes! You can even use a flat rock – anything that flattens the flowers and plant materials to distribute the pigment to the paper or fabric. I prefer a rubber mallet due to its large pounding surface. You get a more even flattening of the flowers and release of the pigments with a rubber mallet. Don’t worry – they aren’t a tool that will break the bank! They are very affordable!
Can I flower pound on clothing?
Yes! Follow the steps for flower pounding on fabric. You’ll want to soak the clothing in alum prior to pounding. If it is a t-shirt or something that is difficult to pound only on one layer, add a plastic sheet inside the t-shirt. Otherwise, the pigments will bleed to the other side of the shirt.
Browse through more surface design projects and inspiration on Create Whimsy.