Hammered Leaves and Flowers

Hammered Leaves and Flowers                         

The vibrant colors of leaves and flowers are easy to preserve by pounding them to release their natural dyes onto fabric. I hear that Cherokee women pounded flowers to decorate fabric.
Who knew that venting your frustrations could have such aesthetically pleasing results?

Step 1: Take a Walk

Start by going on a walk or visiting your garden to find leaves and flowers to work with. You're looking for things with bright colors that aren't too juicy or too dry. It'll take a little trial and error to find good plants, so grab a variety and play around. Make sure you do not pick poison ivy or oak.

Step 2: Assemble Your Materials

For this project, you'll need:
- flowers or leaves to print
- washed and dried cotton fabric
- selection of hammers and/or smooth rocks
- hard work surface (cutting board, slab of wood, etc.)
- paper towels
- scissors
- a pen
- tweezers or toothpicks
- tape
Gather your materials and set up your work surface. You want a smooth, hard surface that you can hammer on and not worry about denting or getting messy. I used a plastic cutting board covered with a paper bag.
A note on safety: please help kids with hammering. Smashed fingers hurt! Safety goggles are a good idea, too.

Step 3: Trim the Flowers/leaves Trim any chunky or squishy bits off of the plants and arrange them on your fabric. Tape them down. Just make sure that the tape doesn't get between the plant and the paper.

Step 4: Cover With a Blotter Cover the plant with 2-3 layers of paper towels. You can also cover it with another piece of paper, but the paper towels work better because they absorb excess plant goo.

Step 5: Plan Your Attack On the paper towels, sketch the borders of the area you'll need to hammer. Unless, of course, you want to vent some frustration and plan to hammer the whole thing.

Step 6: Let the Smashing Begin!   Start by making small, even taps using the flat side of one of the hammers. This will set the flowers or leaves in place. Then go carefully over the entire area with a ball- or cross-peen hammer. Start by going in rows up and down then do another pass from side to side. You'll need to hit every single bit of the plant, so be patient. It can take a while.

Step 7: Check Your Progress Peel back the paper towel to check your progress. If the pattern on the towel is filled in, then you're probably done. If not, replace the paper towel and start again.

Step 8: The Unveiling Now peel away the leaf to reveal the print. If it sticks to the fabric, just let it dry for a bit and you'll be able to brush it off. 

Admire Your Work