Craft Articles

The craft of pressing flowers reached the height of its popularity during the 19th century Victorian era, but is today going through a revival as more and more people rediscover this fascinating hobby.

When you create pressed flower art, you place flower petals and/or leaves and stems and other parts of the flower in a flower press where they become dry and flattened. The pressed flowers can then be used for a wide range of different items. When you press flowers, their colour will change. Some flowers develop more intense colours, while others become paler and display the characteristic faded shades that we often associate with pressed flower art. Both types of colour changes are highly desirable within the hobby and you can combine the two types in order to create striking, contrasting works of floral art. 

If you do not wish to press your own flowers, it is today possible to purchased already pressed flowers for craft projects.

Purchasing pressed flowers is for instance popular among brides-to-be who wish to create personal invitation cards but do not have the time to go out and pick their own flowers and press them. Pressed flowers can be ordered 12 months a year, and this is naturally very convenient for hobbyists living in regions subjected to cold or dry seasons when picking flowers is impossible and floral art requires a lot of planning in advance.

Pressed flowers are usually mounted on paper, but fine linen, silk, velvet and cotton are also popular. High-quality hand-made paper is highly fashionable within the hobby. If you want to create long-lasting crafts, it is important to choose a paper variant that will withstand the test of time without deteriorating. Pressed flowers are sometimes combined with the craft of paper marbling. This is a technique where free flowing water-based paint and a tray of water is used to create unique patterns on durable paper. Paper marbling was invented in China over 2000 years ago. It did not grow popular in Europe until the 17th century where it was initially a secret craft known only by a selected few.

Pressing flowers and other parts of a plant is not only a way of creating beautiful art; it is also a way for botanists and other scientists to preserve living plants that would normally decompose within a few weeks. Pressing flowers was especially important among early scientists, such as Linnaeus, who could not ship flowers frozen in liquid carbon dioxide or relay on photographs and films.