There are so many ways you can use up the blooms from your garden or indoor plants this spring. If you’ve been looking for new seasonal decor, why not try DIYing it? Whether you’re working with fresh leaves or already have plants with spent flowers in your garden, now is the time to try one of Instagram’s latest favorite spring projects: flower hammering.
The flower hammering technique has long existed as a way to easily make print art from flowers. This spring, it’s been given new life in the crafting community. One of the best parts of this craft is the versatility: Flowers can be hammered onto paper, canvas, or even fabric. The possibilities are pretty much endless, from hanging art pieces to unique quilts.
The basics of the flower hammering technique are super simple—if we’re being honest, you don’t even need a hammer. Just grab a few flowers and leaves of your choice, decide how you want to arrange them on fabric or paper, and grab something to use as your hammer (truly dedicated print artists have found that you can even use your hands for this part). To prevent the flower pigments from getting everywhere and help keep your design from shifting, you may also want to pop a sheet of hard plastic over the flowers once they’ve been placed.
After you’ve set up your design, all you need to do is hammer down the leaves and flowers onto the sheet of paper. The goal is to press all of the pigments. Bring the hammer straight down onto the foliage you’re pressing to prevent it from shifting. Make sure you cover each section of flower and leaf, or you’ll have blank spots in your final print.
Once you’ve finished hammering down all the fauna you’re planning on including in your final design, you can remove the protective sheet of plastic and peel away the foliage. If your print needs a little bit of touching up, some water and a paintbrush can often do the trick of filling in accidental holes.
For the best results, choose flowers and leaves that can lay relatively flat on paper. This ensures that each individual petal or leaf is visible—the more vibrant the bloom, the better the final piece will turn out.
True to their name, Instagram crafter @hammerflower showed off a gorgeous spring project using African violets, receiving over 242,000 likes. They also demonstrate a key part of the technique, hammering down a base layer of leaves first before adding the violets. This ensures every part of the plant being used actually hits the paper. If you layer several plants on top of each other, only the bottommost plant will show up on the print. If you’re planning on creating a layered design, start with the plants you want on the last layer of the print first, and build up from there.
Not everyone is down for this DIY though—some comments on @hammerflower’s post are up in arms about picking plants to be hammered.
“It actually hurts the flower,” reads one top comment on the post. “PAINFUL! I love art and nature but would not try this,” adds another. Concerned readers will be happy to know that plants don’t have nerves or pain receptors. You can harvest your flowers and leaves for hammering and your beloved garden will be none the wiser.
If you’re still worried, you can always wait until your plants are ready to be pruned or pick up freshly-fallen foliage to use for your next art project. Just keep in mind that the flowers and leaves should be as fresh as possible for the best results. The older they are, the drier they’ll be, leaving you with less color to work with.
Be sure to thoroughly inspect petals and leaves for any pieces of dirt, hiding bugs, or scattered pollen. If you’re working with blooms that have large amounts of pollen in their centers, you might want to carefully brush out most of it before printing to ensure the pollen stays centered while you print.