Remember the first flower you received from your partner and how precious the moment was? Preserving that moment in time leaves you with lasting memories, so learning the art of pressing flowers can be useful.
When you get to hold the tradition of exchanging flowers on special occasions close to you, it’s easier for you to reconnect with that moment back in time. Pressing flowers isn’t as simple as placing them between the hardcover book’s pages. There’s more to the technique.
If you want to master the process of pressing flowers and preserving them for eternity, we have sorted out all the effective methods for you to follow.
Which Flowers are the Easiest to Press?
Pretty much all the flowers available in the market and in the wild can be preserved for decades and centuries.
However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that some flowers are easy to press, and a few others are hard to press. When looking for flowers to press, you want:
- Thin petals
- Minimal number of petals
- Petals that aren’t thick and don’t have high sap content
Some of the good options for pressing include:
- Roses
- Daisies
- Pansies
- Carnations
- Cosmos
- Lavender
- Hydrangea
- Poppies
- Delphinium
- Violets, etc.
These are a handful of the flowers that press well. The key is to experiment and see which ones work best.
How to Prep the Flowers for Pressing?
Once you have decided which flowers you wish to press, you need to focus on prepping them for the process.
This includes de-stemming them and pulling out the petals so they aren’t overlapping, making it easier to press. They also press evenly.
Once the flowers are sorted and you have selected them individually, you next have to clean them under running water. This cleans away any dirt or dust on the flowers so that you can press them without the dirt transferring onto the medium.
After cleaning the flowers with water, lay them flat on a paper towel and cover them with another layer to soak up the excess water. The next day, your flowers are all prepped and ready to be pressed for preservation.
Easy Ways to Press Flowers (With What You Have at Home)
One of the most common complaints people have regarding pressing flowers is being worried about “what’s available” at home.
Questions like, “Do I even have the supplies available at home?” become recurrent. To put your mind at ease, we have sorted all the different ways you can press flowers with what’s available at home.
1. Using a Hard Cover Book
Even if you aren’t a bibliophile, you probably have at least one heavy-weight book lying around in the home. Remove it from the shelves for this process.
You will need:
- Flowers that you wish to press
- Hardcover book with at least 200+ pages, so it’s heavy
- Absorbent paper like parchment paper, etc.
Once you have the supplies sorted out, the following steps are simple:
Lay down the parchment paper on a flat surface first. Ensure that the surface of the parchment is smooth.
On the surface of the parchment, lay out the flowers, ensuring that the petals aren’t overlapping.
Place another parchment paper on top of the flowers, and either lay the heavy book on top or leave it. Or, you can place the parchment “sandwich” with the flowers between the book’s pages and shut it close.
What’s great about this particular technique is its effectiveness. However, you’d have to wait for 2-3 weeks or even up to a month to see desired results.
2. Using Wooden Plaques
Another easy and effective method of pressing flowers is using wooden plaques. This technique works best for larger flowers that don’t fit inside the books.
Since wooden plaques are “sturdier” and “more resilient,” you’d need something stronger to blot the sap and water content from the flowers. Also, cardboard or blotter papers work like magic in eliminating the moisture from the flowers.
Again, you’d have to wait 2-4 weeks to see notable results with this technique. So, patience is critical in this case as well.
3. Using a Microwave
You’d be surprised to know that you can press flowers using a microwave. This is perfect for when you are on a time crunch and need to press the flowers quickly for a project you are likely working on.
However, as effective as this technique is, it requires specialized equipment, such as a “microwave flower press,” which can be purchased online.
Here’s a breakdown of what you need to do:
- Line the flowers on the fabric liner part of the microwave flower press in a linear fashion. You want to ensure that nothing overlaps and that the flowers are arranged properly.
- Next, switch on the microwave and run it for 20-25 seconds for an “initial burst.” This helps dry out the flowers quickly.
- Following the initial burst, keep pressing the flowers for shorter bursts of 10 seconds until you are happy with the outcome. You do have to keep an eye out for the heating, though, because excess heat can burn or scorch the flowers.
- As you remove the pressed flowers from the inside of the liner, be careful and gentle since the petals might stick to the inner side of the liner.
4. Using an Iron
While we are on the topic of using appliances for pressing flowers, talking about using an iron makes total sense. Again, this is a quick method for pressing the flowers. However, the results aren’t as great as the other methods.
You will need:
- Iron
- Parchment paper
Once you have gotten the supplies, flatten the parchment paper on the table and place the flowers on them so they lay flat.
You can then cover the flowers with another layer of parchment paper.
Iron the flowers over the parchment paper for a few seconds. Ensure that the iron’s temperature isn’t too high, as this will damage the flowers instead of drying and pressing them like normal.
Also, you have to iron the flowers for short intervals of 10-15 seconds instead of rushing through and keeping them for prolonged periods. Check and assess how much of the flowers have pressed before you go ahead and introduce more heat.
Once the flowers have dried out around 70%, you can finish the remainder of the drying and pressing inside books or wooden plaques.
5. Using a Flower Press
If you want to keep things technical and more precise, a flower press can be handy. They are readily available in craft stores, so accessibility won’t be an issue.
You will need parchment paper sheets and place the flowers in between the sheets. Once done, you will have to put the parchment paper with the flowers in between the two plates and tighten the screws in between.
Once that’s done, it is a waiting game from there on. You might have to wait 2-3 weeks before the flowers are pressed well.
How to Store Pressed Flowers?
Pressing the flowers isn’t the end of the process. Once you have successfully dried and pressed the flowers, it is time to store them for long-lasting benefits.
The best way to store these pressed flowers is by placing them between the layers of two wax paper so that the flowers aren’t damaged in the long run.
Also, when storing the pressed flowers, keep them in a cool and dry place so that the wax doesn’t melt.
Conclusion
If you are on a quest to press flowers to preserve them for personal projects or just for the sake of it, we recommend you follow these tips. Most of these tips utilize items available in your home, so you don’t have to go out of your way to find the essential supplies. Which of these tips are you planning to follow?
