Flower Press Kit How-To Guide

Flower pressing is a timely tradition that has been passed on from generation to generation. It's deeply rooted in our cultural history and humanities heritage and relationship to mother nature. This simple flower press activity can be traced back to ancient Egyptian times but really took off in Victorian England. Pressing flowers and plants helped people keep track, collect, and label the plant life around them. Understand and cataloging what plants were harmful and which plants were beneficial became a huge source of knowledge. Flower press kits were first introduced early on as way to press flowers on the go, this enabled early pioneers to collect and log plants as they traveled.

Flower pressing has also contributed heavily to the arts as well by becoming some of our first pattern prints that then lead and inspired design. This two-dimensional image of life itself helps to keep us connected to nature even when we eradicate it in our concrete jungles. This project motivated us to not only encourage everyone to partake in the cultural tradition, but to even create our own flower press to pass on to our children for many generations to come.

Let's get into it: use your kit to press flowers, ferns, or leaves. The main concept is to keep your samples flat and dry them out as quickly as possible to prevent browning.

How to put the flower press kit together:

1. Gently place fresh flowers, ferns or leaves in between paper sheets.
2. Sandwich the paper sheets within the cardboard and wood pieces.
3. Insert the screws and tighten the nuts.

Instructions:

Depending on the plants you choose, the wings nuts might need to be tightened after a few days or the paper sheets may need to be replaced if they are too moist. Some flowers will need to be pressed for up to three to four weeks.

Replace paper sheets and cardboard between uses if they are dirty or wet.

Flowers with naturally flat faces are the easiest to press.

For thick flowers, like orchids or roses, try splitting them down the middle and pressing half or part of the flower.

We hope you can take some time to press some plants this year!

Flower press kit FAQ's