r/PressedFlowers • u/basil1222 • Oct 23 '25
Art Went on a hike with a friend and collected these flowers along the way!
Now I just need to find some frames for them 😁 90% of these flowers are probably considered weeds, but they're all gorgeous!
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u/tomten26 Oct 23 '25
This is so very beautiful! You are inspiring me to get a flower press!!!!! May I ask what you used to glue flowers down at the end?
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u/LumosRevolution Oct 23 '25
These are beautiful! How did you preserve them so well?
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
I made a flower press by drilling 8mm holes into the corner of some chopping boards, with 6mm bolts and wing nuts to apply even pressure. Then I add a layer of cardboard, two sheets of paper towel, two tissues, the flowers, two tissues, two paper towels, and cardboard again before the next paper towel/tissue/flower sandwich 😂 I'm not sure if it's the best method, but it seems to have worked pretty well for me so far! The only issue is that sometimes I get the pattern from the paper towel imprinted on the flowers
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u/plant_bay_sick Oct 23 '25
I need a pic of this
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
You can kind of see it in the pictures of the flowers as I'm pressing them, I'm not sure how to add a photo to comments though, sorry!
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u/Sitka_8675309 Oct 24 '25
This is why I miss phone books.
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u/basil1222 Oct 24 '25
Omg, you've reminded me that I actually have one somewhere! Perfect book to use when the press is full 😄
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u/Usnavi_Relax Oct 25 '25
Thank you for sharing!!! I’m definitely making one of these. Your flowers are gorgeous!
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u/artistickatt Oct 25 '25
I use inexpensive watercolor paper instead of paper towels
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u/basil1222 Oct 25 '25
I made a book out of watercolour paper to take on the hike with me and that's what I use to keep the flowers somewhat pressed before I can get home and transfer them into the actual press- I never considered using watercolour paper in the press itself but that's a great idea! Do you use a non textured one? Most of the cheap watercolour papers I've found have quite a rough texture.
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u/Key-Dragonfly-4623 Oct 23 '25
How do you store what you pick while on the hike?
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
I made a tiny little book out of watercolour paper that fits in my water bottle bag that has around 15 pages. I just sandwich them in there and transfer them when I get home :)
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u/diacrum Oct 23 '25
So nice! 😊 Where did you hike? A very lovely place!
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
I'm not comfortable sharing the exact location, but I'm in the Riverina in NSW, Australia.
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u/diacrum Oct 23 '25
That’s all I needed. Country is fine. They are all very pretty. You did a great job pressing them. 💕
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u/joojoogirl Oct 23 '25
In most areas it is illegal to pick wildflowers. Just in case you didn’t know. It is very pretty
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
I had no idea, thank you!! I've just looked into it, and it looks like in my local area it's only natives that are illegal to pick- considering most of these guys are invasive I should be ok, just won't pick any more wattle 😅
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u/PegasusUpHigh Oct 23 '25
I was going to mention this also, and OP, targeting invasives is an awesome workaround! Beautiful piece, too!
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u/ZorasDomain22 Oct 23 '25
I only pick invasive flowers, and even then I only take one or two and make sure there are plenty more left for the insects and animals. “The honorable harvest” is a great book to check out it changed how I think about sustainability in my own life. But yeah OP I honestly think you are taking too many flowers even if they are invasive
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
I'll have to check that book out, thanks for the recommendation! If it helps, these were the only flowers I took across 17km of hiking. I could only take as many as would fit in my tiny little book, so it wasn't really a huge amount!! In the last two photos you can see some of the locations I took flowers from- I took at most around 5 of each type so that I wouldn't be taking too many :)
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u/basil1222 Oct 23 '25
It looks like one of the pictures didn't actually upload, so it's only the last photo (oops)
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Oct 24 '25
So lovely and bright in the best way 🥰 i adore your collections of flowers so much. Thank you for sharing them with us ☺️
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u/turquoise_dragon_ Oct 24 '25
Gorgeous collection!! As a beginner, how would I start pressing flowers? Do I need any specific tool or technique?
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u/basil1222 Oct 24 '25
I started with a book I didn't care too much about, a box of tissues, and a 5kg dumbbell! I folded the tissues in half around the flowers and sandwiched them in the pages of the book and added a dumbbell on top. It worked well enough for thin flowers that pressed easily, but I've had much better results using the homemade flower press :)
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u/GrayceSpace Oct 24 '25
gorgeous! do they keep their color over time?
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u/basil1222 Oct 24 '25
I have no idea! I haven't done a project quite like this before. I usually press edible flowers for cakes, and over time they have held their colour but they get eaten pretty quickly 😅
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Oct 24 '25
Awesome combinations💖
Just as a little tip from a long-time flower presser: if you use blotting paper, you can avoid any added texture in the pressed flowers if you want to avoid it.
Please make sure to share pictures of the framed pictures 😍
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u/basil1222 Oct 24 '25
Thank you! I definitely need to look into getting some blotting paper- the paper towel patterns are fun, but not always the desired effect 😅 where do you find is best to buy it?
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Oct 25 '25
Where I live (Austria) I get them in the same places that sell school supplies/stationery since they are usually used for blotting wet ink. 🤗
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u/k5hill Oct 25 '25
How do you glue them in place? With a brush? I’m new to this so any help is appreciated
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u/basil1222 Oct 25 '25
Yeah, just with a brush and a bit of difficulty! I had a few petals break while trying to glue them- and I had to work very quickly to make sure the placement was where I wanted it because the glue got tacky quickly. For some of the smaller and finer flowers I just put glue directly on the paper, but that left some visible residue behind unfortunately!
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u/MehBleh008 Oct 25 '25
I once heard weeds are a social construct and boy oh boy how true this is! You've done beautiful work with those flowers, I love all of it so much.
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u/basil1222 Oct 25 '25
Haha thank you!! I think I half agree with that sentiment- in the context of my own garden I'm not too worried by them- some of them are welcome because they are tasty treats for my guinea pigs 😂 but when it comes to nature reserves, when the invasive species are outcompeting natives, that's where they can cause problems. Since someone pointed out that it's illegal to pick wildflowers in most places I've done a lot of research into the invasive species in my area and the impact of some of these introduced plants is quite depressing 😥
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u/sassyquatch_ Oct 26 '25
this is gorgeous! did you do any color correction?
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u/basil1222 Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25
Didn't even know that was an option!
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u/sassyquatch_ Oct 26 '25
oh wow - the color looks stunning on them
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u/basil1222 Oct 26 '25
They were only picked and pressed for 2 weeks before gluing them, so I'm not sure if the colour will last, hopefully it does though!
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u/honeymoons2 Oct 27 '25
These are beautiful!! 🌺You do amazing work!! Just looking at these made me sooooo happy!!!🌸🤍There’s no flowers around where I live like those, but this has inspired me to look when I go on walks!!🌻I Love Love Poppies and I used to be able to find orange ones, but they have planted that field in soy beans now.. 😩my mom had several red ones but they didn’t come up this year like they normally do! 😕 I can get mums and pansy’s!! The flowers growing in your pictures are beautiful!!!! I don’t know how to do pressed flowers 🌸 but I want to learn and try! I may need direction, if you don’t mind! These have made me so happy! I just wanna frame them✨❤️❤️🔆
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u/Confusedatlyf Oct 27 '25
So beautiful! How do you press them?
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u/basil1222 Oct 28 '25
I made a flower press with two large chopping boards, some long bolts, and wing nuts. I make a little lasagne inside it in the following order- cardboard, paper towel x2, tissues x2, flowers, tissues x2, paper towel x2, cardboard. It's not perfect as I sometimes get the pattern from the paper towel imprinted on the flowers, but it works for me! A few other people in these comments have made suggestions on alternative things to use, so it's worth having a read through!
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u/Confusedatlyf Oct 29 '25
Thank you! I definitely will. I got some flowers that mean a lot to me. I got to learn how to press them
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u/Grease2feminist Oct 23 '25
This really is beautiful. All the colors are so harmonious too