Flower Hammer Art on Fabric
Flower pounding is an easy and fun technique to make washable fabric designs. It’s also a great way to dress up tea towels and napkins!
The Pigeon Letters class covers how to source flowers and greenery, test them for pigment and create a composition using flower pounding. Pre treatment of the fabric with a mordant like alum helps the fibers absorb the natural dyes from the flowers.
How to
You can use flowers to create beautiful prints on paper, canvas or fabric. This technique, called flower pounding or tatakizome, requires only a few basic tools and yields amazing results.
You’ll need to prep the cloth first by presoaking it in a solution of 2 cups water and 1/4 cup alum (found at art or fabric stores) per yard of fabric. This will help the dye absorb better.
Once the fabric is soaked, tape down your flowers and a piece of parchment paper over them. Then take your design outside to hammer. It’s definitely harder than it looks, so you’ll want to find a good spot to do this (or have your neighbours cover their ears).
The best flowers for this are flat ones like pansies and violas. They will transfer colour really well. Larger petals, such as rose or poppy petals, will need a lot more hammering to get the full shape. Leaves can also be used – I’ve found red maple leaves and fern leaves work really well, but others may not transfer as easily.
Materials
Flower pounding is also known as Tatakizome and has been used by artists from Japan for years. It’s an easy and fun way to create botanical prints on fabric. All you need is flowers and a hammer to transfer their natural dye.
This project encourages kids to observe and appreciate the beauty of nature. It teaches them to pay attention to detail and develop patience, which is important when creating a complex art project.
When the process is complete, it’s a great idea to heat set your print. This will help preserve the color and make your hammered flower print last longer. The heat setting also helps to transfer the dye from the flowers and leaves more quickly, so you can enjoy your beautiful hammered botanical print sooner! This is also a great opportunity to talk with kids about how some flowers and plants are toxic, while others may cause allergic reactions in some people.
Preparation
Using this technique, plant dyes are transferred directly to fabric to create beautiful one-of-a-kind flower prints. The fabric first gets a pre treatment with mordant (alum) to ensure the flower pigment is stable and cannot fade. Once the fabric is ready to be used, it can be dry cleaned.
Children can pound flowers and leaves to make colorful compositions on paper or cloth. To prevent damage to furniture, a large cutting board on which to pound should be used with a towel to reduce the noise level.
To start, arrange a few petals or leaves on the paper or cloth and cover with wax paper or more fabric. Tape the leaves or petals in place to reduce the risk of them moving during the pounding process. Then take your work outdoors to pound! Be prepared to pound quite hard. This project may take a couple of hours to complete, but the results are very satisfying.
Pounding
Pounding flowers or leaves onto fabric can produce a stunning design. It also can be a bit of a stress release activity, as you’ll want to pound your piece hard enough to transfer the pigments, but not so hard that it becomes damaged.
If you aren’t confident that your flowers or leaves will provide enough dye, do a test print first with a small section of the plant. This will let you gauge the amount of pigment it will create, and whether or not you need to add a mordant to make the color permanent and washable.
The mordant I prefer to use for pounding is alum (potassium aluminum sulfate), which is available as a powder or in a liquid solution. You can find it at most quilting or sewing shops. The alum will help the dye to set, and reduce the likelihood that your work will fade in air or in the washer. It will also help your creations last longer than if you did not treat the fabric before pounding.
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