Book arts - pressed flower art

Beautiful accents gifted by nature

Hello to all on a dry afternoon on the island and just in from gathering specimens for my flower presses. Note plural as I have quite a few. I have written about pressed flowers before on Substack but today I thought I would focus on some of the ways I use them in my art. For book arts folk this is in place of writing about our current artist book as I have not shifted into the next phase yet of starting on the final book. I anticipated that this might be the case as I often need a bit more contemplative time. I will pop up next week though as I will be further on with the project.

I am opening up the first section on this post to all subscribers just as a way to share the sorts of things we get up to in our seasonal book arts space.

Pressing flowers is a complete passion of mine and, over the years, I have built these pressed specimens into many a creative project. I also note how popular these wee additions are in my Etsy store as I think there is a nostalgic quality about these additions.

I gather specimens after midday on dry days to ensure any morning dew has dried. Any water in the specimens and they will brown and rot in the press. I press between blotting or cartridge paper and I am always on the hunt for additional presses that pop up in charity stores. The simpliest use is to add them to book covers for my store and these are always so popular. I like to think a wee bit of my garden has found a new home.

However, in more recent years I have been experimenting with how I use pressed flowers in my art work. My first port of call has been my beloved art journal pages. Pressed flowers were often my starting point for a page so why not incorporate them in the final page?

What is good enough for my art journal is also good enough for my sketchbook and when I studied the same hedgerow I am using for our summer book arts project, I included them in my pages completed both in the field and in my studio.

I think that was the impetus to start including them in my mixed media work more broadly and since then my pressed flowers have popped up in my exhibition work. Last year I created two artist books for an exhibition at the Barony Centre in Craft Town Scotland and I felt I took an important step forward in using pressed flowers as art. The books shared interpretations of the Arran and Kintyre through found potery and specimens were gathered from both sites. I only press the old fashioned way and never in the microwave so there is a time delay while I wait for the specimens to dry and press. I use this time in my sketchbook to explore ideas. Once the specimens are dry I can then move into my artist book. My presses are currently full with specimens from the hedgerow beyond my garden gate ready to be included in my artist book for this Substack project.

I love to work in layers and the pressed flowers may pop up in any of those layers but often become the star of the show. I see them as a gift from nature. Over time I have learnt that with some pressed flowers you can stitch over them with the sewing machine or even add highlight details with acrylic pens. I instinctively feel that this creative journey will run and run.

I have included pressed flowers in my altered books as they are an excellent project for them. Keeping them between book pages protects them from fading.

I hope that gives everyone a flavour of how I use them and even where my journey might take me. I would be interested to hear how any of you use pressed flowers in your creative work. The final part of this post is behind a paywall. I use these very infrequently as I am not generally a fan but it is a good way to give folk insights into what type of creativity we get up to in our paid book arts project so I hope no one minds me using one here? If you would like to find out more about my Substack Seasonal Book Arts project you can read about it HERE. We have just moved into our second year and make different books across the season as a way of exploring our creativity. It is not a community as I believe that making books is a deeply personal creative endeavour. There is no comparisons and no chat and that allows us all to move at a pace that suits us. I pop up most weeks with either a vlog or a blog.