Article | First Attempt to Press Flowers

 By Eurielle

Written on January 19, 2022

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Back in December, my sister had her commence walk/graduation. Although she graduated in 2020, because of the pandemic, she could only walk last year. Before going to the university, we dropped by the nearest on-the-way Stater Bros to buy gifts for our fellow friends and classmate. My parents decided to get her a bouquet of flowers, too. 

Ultimately, after the ceremony and we were back home, they put the flowers in an existing vase in the living room. However, because the flowers have been out of water for more than 4-6 hours, 2-3 days after her ceremony, they were already bowing down.

Then I remembered thinking of making pressed flowers - it's one of those arts and crafts I wanted to try for so long. So, I checked out what I needed to do and went with book pressing. It was the most arduous one because I had to wait for a month before it fully dried up and thinned out.

Books I used to press flowers

Paper I used as to not stain the book

Sadly, or rather, unfortunately, I didn't have parchment paper or whatnot that absorbs moisture from the flowers very well. However, I read from an online blog about flower pressing that you can use magazine paper or newspaper paper. I used an advertisement paper from some magazine - I think it was Dr. Leonard's, if I remembered correctly - and this brown paper here. It did look like a parchment paper, but I doubt it was it. However, they'd do. 

It took about 2-3 weeks before the flowers look dried up and thin as paper, but I have a huge, one-piece flower that seemed to need addition week or two, so I gave them a whole extra 2 weeks.

Pressed flowers

Pressed flowers

These were the pressed flowers after pressing for about 3-4 weeks. The smaller ones were pretty much paper-thin, even the one with its stalk. My problem was the red, big flower. In the picture, it did look very thin and pressed, but in reality, it didn't feel like it.

Then, about 2-3 days ago, my sister and I set up the family photo gallery in the hallway. It took the whole afternoon - about 3-4 hours. I didn't really count. Ultimately, we have a few extra picture frames. So, today, I put these pressed flowers inside the picture frame. I had a hard time because I didn't really have those picture frames that were for pressed flowers only. I have a regular picture frame. I was also frustrated because the smaller ones would slide to the bottom once I lifted the frame. I had to put scotch tape at the back of each flower.

Pressed flowers framed

These flowers were special because they were from my sister's college graduation. I planned to give this to her during our birthday in February.