Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Flower Pounding


Yesterday my MIL called and invited Hazel and I over so she could teach us how to do some flower pounding as practice to prepare for teaching a 4-H group today. We went and picked all sorts of flowers to try and some came out beautifully and some not so hot. This is a fun project that can be done on cotton fabric, silk, wool, paper, and even on ribbons. A while back, she pounded the flowers on some fabric and then embroidered around the edges of the flowers and framed it so now she has a pretty flowers all year.

I'm excited about giving it a try with all the new wildflowers that I should have around the yard pretty soon. If you're interested in giving this a try I would recommend the book, The Art and Craft of Pounding Flowers by Laura C. Martin. It has all sorts of different projects you can try as well as directions on how to prepare your fabric, which flowers work best, and even how you should lay them to help them turn out the best.


I pounded some Violets, Bleeding Hearts, Bachelor Button, Impatiens, Dame's Rocket, Wall flower, Columbine, and some leaves.

"Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men or animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock." ~Henry Ward Beecher

5 comments:

Jessica said...

Very interesting! I will definitely have to check that out! My mom gave me a flower press a couple of years ago for my birthday, so I've been having fun with that & hope to make some homemade notecards with the finished product...eventually! :)

Anonymous said...

WHOA I just NOW realized Gumbo Lily is your MIL! I've followed both of you for how long, and I JUST figured this out?! LOL!

Ali said...

Oh how neat! We might have to try that. Jimmy loves flowers and I bet he would have a ball pounding them (and then daddy might feel a little better about him liking flowers so much lol!)

Gumbo Lily said...

We had a good time, didn't we? I'm ready to do more pounding and more projects.

Jody

Anonymous said...

How neat!! I'll have to check into that.