Flower Pounding

Fabric preparation
Because flower pounding is a dyeing process, you need fabric that has been prepared for dyeing. You can use PFD fabric (prepared for dyeing), which is already treated and ready to pound on, or you can treat it yourself. If you treat it, use 100-percent cotton in any light color, 100-percent silk or 100-percent linen. The ingredients used in treating the fabric for dying are alum and washing soda. Alum (aluminum sulfate) can be purchased in small quantities in the baking aisle of the grocery store. It can be purchased in larger quantities from an artist's supply store (not a craft store) or ordered directly from the pharmacist.

Washing soda can be purchased in the laundry detergent aisle of any grocery store. Arm & Hammer makes one brand, packaged in a yellow box (figure A).

Other Materials:

fresh flowers
masking tape
hammer
permanent thin line marking pen - black
cutting board to protect work surface
kitchen tea towel to put under cutting board

Steps:

Treating fabric
1. Wash fabric in hot water using regular laundry detergent and two tablespoons of washing soda. Run the rinse cycle three to four times to make sure all the washing soda is removed.

2. Remove the fabric from the washing machine and place it in a bucket or large container. Add two cups of hot water and 1/4 cup of alum for each yard of fabric. If needed, add more hot water, but do not add more alum. Stir until alum dissolves. Allow the water to cool. This could take several hours.

3. In a separate cup or bowl, dissolve washing soda (one teaspoon for each yard of muslin) in a small amount of hot water--about 1/2 cup. Add this mixture to the container holding the fabric. At this point it MIGHT fizz.

3. Soak this overnight or for at least eight hours. RINSE. Wring out and line dry. Iron while it is still damp to remove all the wrinkles easily.

Metal to the petal
1. Choose a flower and pick it off of the stem (figure B). If it is a single petal such as a petunia you can lay the entire flower (pretty side down) onto the muslin. If it is a layered flower, take it apart and do a few petals at a time allowing them to dry in between layers.

2. With the flower face down on the muslin (figure C), cover the entire flower with masking tape (figure D).

3. Turn the muslin over and pound with a hammer (figure E). You will immediately see the color of the flower bleeding through. When you are done pounding, turn the muslin back over and remove the tape (figure F).

4. Keep adding flowers until you are happy with your arrangement (figure G). Don't forget to fill in bare spots with smaller flowers and greenery (figure H ).

5. When your pounding is finished, outline each leaf with the permanent marking pen (figure I). We usually use black but feel free to experiment with other colors. We also like to doodle inside the petals. We do this where we see color changes. We like to call it stipple quilting with a pen (figure J).

6. When you pounding is finished, heat set with a dry iron on a low temperature. The poundings cannot be immersed in water, but they are dry-cleanable. For a more permanent pounding, color copy them onto photo transfer paper and iron them onto fabric, clothing or quilt block (figure K). If you do this, they are washable.

Quilt pounding
If you want to make a pounding into a quilt, add a border and quilt as desired (figure L). You can quilt with a cross hatch over the entire pounding, or follow the petal shapes. We have even ignored the pounding totally and used a stencil.

Other options are to frame your pounding (figure M) or laminate it and use as a placemat or bookmark. The possibilities are endless with flower pounding. All the fun projects can be found in our book.

Have fun and happy hammering.