How-to: Hammered flower and leaf prints

Get out the hammer, it's how-to Tuesday and we have some botanical prints to make!

I learned this technique, which makes an image using the natural dyes in plants, from my college roommate Sarah. It's great for making cards or simple botanical prints. 

Actually, you'll need a little more than just a hammer. Here's a supply list: 

• flowers or leaves to print
  
• watercolor or other rough, acid-free paper
  
• selection of hammers (including ball-peen or cross-peen, if possible)
  
• hard work surface (cutting board, slab of wood, etc.)
  
• paper towels
  
• scissors
  
• pen
  
• tweezers or toothpicks
  
• acrylic finishing spray (optional)
  

Start by going on a walk or visiting your garden to find leaves and flowers to work with. You're looking for things with bright colors that aren't too juicy or too dry. It'll take a little trial and error to find good plants, so start with a variety and play around. 

Then set up your work surface.  You want a smooth, hard surface that you can hammer on and not worry about denting or getting messy. I used a plastic cutting board covered with a paper bag. 

Next, trim any chunky or squishy bits off of the plants and arrange them on your watercolor paper. 

Cover the plant with 2-3 layers of paper towels. You can also cover it with another piece of paper, but the paper towels work better because they absorb excess plant goo.

On the paper towels, sketch the borders of the area you'll need to hammer. Unless, of course, you want to vent some frustration and plant to hammer the whole thing.


Start by making small, even taps using the flat side of one of the hammers. This will set the flowers or leaves in place. Then go carefully over the entire area with a ball- or cross-peen hammer. Start by going in rows up and down (see the arrows in the previous picture), then do another pass from side to side.  You'll need to hit every single bit of the plant, so be patient. It can take a while.

Peel back the paper towel to check your progress. If the pattern on the towel is filled in, then you're probably done. If not, replace the paper towel and start again. 

These leaves look pretty well smashed.

Now peel away the leaf to reveal the print. 

Note that different kinds of hammers can give different results -- I used a ball-peen hammer for part of this, and it left some round spots that I think are a little too smooshed and gray. The more natural-looking, red parts of this print came from cross-peen hammer action.

Here's a sampling of the plants I tried this with today. The Japanese maple and periwinkle worked especially well. Some of the others would have worked with additional hammering. 

You'll probably have to try several plants to find one that works for you. The quality of the print will depend not only on your hammering technique and the paper you use, but also on characteristics of the plant, such as its color, hydration level, the stiffness of its fibers, and whether or not it has an outer layer of wax.

Once your print is to your liking, you can spray it with UV-protective acrylic spray to help keep the colors bright. Be sure to do this in a well-ventilated area. 

Ahh, the beauty of brute force! 

Enjoy this project -- it'll work with a lot more than just the Japanese maple leaves I've shown here. Please feel free to link to photos of your prints in the comments area. 

Oh, and a final note on safety: please take care to avoid smashing your fingers with the hammer or making prints from toxic plants. Otherwise this is a pretty kid-friendly project. 

[Update 4/27/2009: You can now find this tutorial on Instructables, where you can view it step-by-step or download the PDF.]

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Other tutorials to check out: 

Movable turntable greeting card from a floppy disk

Eggshell planters