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I was given a beautiful little flower press this Christmas but have never used one before.

Apologies in advance for the flurry of questions...
How long do you press flowers for and do you do it up as tight as you can or is it a gradual thing? Also, if you are already pressing one flower, can you add more in the other layers? what is the best thing to press them on? Kitchen towel, tissue, card?

Hope someone can help. My press was second hand and has no instructions.

My Mum used to press all her own flowers for crafts, cards & so on, just using good old loo roll & heavy books (so nowt fancy & no real adjustment.) She used to check on them every a couple of days or so & change the paper if necessary.

Her biggest tip to beginners was to start with "flat" flowers or just petals, before moving on to more complex things such as roses. She would remove the stamens (if that's the pollen bearing bit ) and dry any dew or rain drops off.

I love big blousey flowers like peonies for their huge petals.

Good luck, hope to see your creations in "Looks Like We Made it" in due course.

MW

I don't really know what I am doing either but I built myself a flower press a couple of months ago and have had a go.

The ones I pressed took about a week. I just tightened up the press and left it.

I also second trying flat flowers as the fatter ones don't work so well. I didn't try taking off the stamens but they don't dry very well so it might be a good idea.

Pansies worked really well and I also had some success with rhododendrons and buds on a stem. I did read that you need to pick them in the morning after the dew has dried off but before they dry out and the flowers need to be in good condition before pressing.

I pressed mine between sheets of greaseproof paper so that they didn't stick to the cardboard of the press which worked quite well too.

I expect you can find some other instructions on the internet too.

I googled "how to press flowers" and found this nice blog.

Pressing flowers is one of those nice things I've imagined myself doing, and never gotten beyond four-leave clovers.

I remember pressing flowers when i was at primary school,(many moons ago), & it was basically a case of placing a broad-petalled flower in the middle of a book,& then placing a heavy object on top until the flower resembled what was required. Afterwards, preserve with a liberal blast of hair spray

Pumpy, that's what we did, too.

I saw the most beautiful exhibit of pressed flower art, from the 19th century, in a rather dingy exhibition room, about thirty years ago in San Francisco. It moved me deeply. Apparently, it was one of the few socially acceptable forms of art for ladies. Other forms of creative expression not being open to them, the mastery some of these artists developed was breathtaking. I've never seen such exquisite work since.

I wish I'd written down something about what I saw. It was as beautiful as the lace museum in Brugge.

Thanks for all your suggestions, I think it may be best to just "have a go".

I too think flower pressed art beautiful. Sadly not appreciated much nowadays as people have no "time to stand and stare". Probably why I like it so much. You have to pause to appreciate it...

i use the kitchen roll and heavy books method.

I have a tiny little childs press, I love pressing flowers ! If I could only find out what to use to stick them into a book, I would be happy !