Craft Project: Hammering Flowers

I visited the Waterfront Museum in Swansea a couple of weeks ago and they were running a craft afternoon teaching all about flower hammering. Don’t worry, I’d never heard of it either! It’s basically about transferring the dye from a fresh flower onto a piece of fabric, which you can then use to decorate a card or put into a picture frame (or even use as part of a design of a t shirt). Below are the instructions and some photos I took so you can try plant hammering yourself at home.

Materials

‘Soft’ flowers/leaves i.e. montbretia, aubrietia, primroses, cranesbill, nettle, lobelia or most other wild flowers (do not pick any rare flowers!).

– Newspaper

– Small 2oz hammer

– Kitchen roll

– Elastic bands

– Masking tape

– Small chopping board or hard surface

– Soft calico or cotton fabric (works on t-shirts)

Instructions

1. Select a piece of fabric and a flower/leaf.

2. Lay the plant face down onto the fabric and cover in masking tape.

3. Lay material face down on the chopping board/hard surface with a thick layer of newspaper between them.

4. Wrap a few pieces of kitchen roll around the head of the hammer and hold in place with an elastic band.

5. Tap the fabric with the hammer (firmly!), occasionally lifting to see if the image is appearing.

6. When you are satisfied with the print, gently peel the plant and masking tape away from the fabric, softly scraping away any pieces of the plant.

7. The print can be used to decorate a card or can be framed as a gift. It could also be used on a shirt pocket on other piece of clothing and can be ‘touched up’ with paint to make the print stand out.