Flowers-on-tulle embroidery has become two things for me – a means of creativity and self-expression, and a spur to observe, explore and discover. It’s my hunch that the growing popularity of all kinds of botanical themes in arts and crafts – from ceramics to drawing to jewellery – is rooted in humanity’s deep need to reconnect with nature, and re-establish the kind of relationship that lies buried in our evolution, one that we risk getting further and further away from in the modern world. There’s something especially satisfying about taking the patterns and aesthetics you notice in nature and using them as inspiration to create shapes with natural materials in flowers-on-tulle embroidery. It helps me to slow down, and respect and appreciate the beautiful world around us. I hope it will do the same for you.
If you have a garden, or even just enough outside space for a pot, why not grow your own flowers and dry them yourself? I think it’s important not to be too fastidious about your garden, or at least a corner of it. I use delphinium seedpods all the time, and I discovered them initially only because I forgot to deadhead them. The very first flowers that I tried weaving into tulle were germander speedwell, tiny blue flowers that I wouldn’t have had in my garden at all if I’d put more effort into getting the perfect lawn.
A tip from my experience is to vary the growing conditions of your plants. If a flower is too big to create with, try growing it in poor soil: the result might well be a smaller flower. I first noticed this when common poppies self-seeded in a patch of my garden where the soil is mixed with sand and crushed stone, and the flowers were much smaller than usual – perhaps a third of the normal size – making them ideal for my work. Conversely, you can encourage flowers that are usually small to grow larger with rich compost and plenty of watering. Again, this happened to me by chance when forget-me-nots self-seeded on a former compost heap and grew bigger than they usually do in the wild. Since then I’ve been deliberately planting a range of flowers in diverse conditions, and sometimes using both large and small varieties of the same flower in a design.
How should you dry plants and flowers?
I use three basic techniques to preserve natural materials at home – pressing, air-drying, and using a desiccant such as silica. Some work better than others with particular varieties. Some flowers are suitable for any of the methods, but the end result will differ depending on which method you use. I started air-drying flowers and foliage long before I was aware that’s what I was doing. I’d make wreaths with fresh flowers and foliage, and I noticed that some acquired a different kind of beauty as they dried.
My first experiments with flowers-on-tulle embroidery involved fresh flowers, which I’d leave to dry on the hoop. Some looked fine, while others shrivelled up to almost nothing. The way flowers change when they’re dry is important to bear in mind when choosing which fresh flowers to pick and dry yourself. You might be tempted to discard a flower for embroidery purposes because the stalk would be too thick to fit through the net fabric, but it’s quite typical for stalks to shrink by at least a third of their size when dry. I encourage you to experiment with each of these methods. There are no rules – you’ll have some successes and some failures, and you’ll discover variations in these methods that yield the best results for your particular selection of plants. Remember to wash your hands after working with dried plants, flowers and foliage, and keep them away from children and pets as some are poisonous or can cause allergic reactions.
Air-drying
Air-drying simply means letting plants dry naturally without the use of any chemicals. There are two common ways to do it: hanging them upside down, or leaving them in a vase until the water evaporates and the flowers dry. Let’s start with the first method. I’m often asked why some flowers are so vibrant – what’s the trick when drying them? Unfortunately, there’s no great secret – it’s just that some flowers naturally maintain their colour and shape well. Such plants are called everlastings, and generally have petals with a waxy or papery texture. When you experiment with air-drying, you’ll often find that if some species in a genus air-dry well, there’s a good chance that others will, too. For example, a lot of commercially dried flowers are Helichrysums, Limoniums and Helipterums. Exploring others from those genera is a good place to start.
When hanging flowers upside down, put them in small bunches – around 10–15 stems – in a dark, warm and well-ventilated place. If your home has a boiler in an airing cupboard, that’s an ideal place; if not, an empty clothes cupboard will work. Darkness is required to prevent petal colours being bleached, so it is not necessary for grasses or seed heads. The idea of upside-down hanging is that gravity will pull the stems straight.
Make sure each bunch is made up of the same flowers rather than mixing them, as different varieties have different drying times. Clean and trim the stalks and remove any unwanted foliage to minimise the risk of mildew. Tie the bunches tightly, as the stems will shrink as they dry and you want to make sure they don’t fall out. You can use an elastic band, twine or thread, but I prefer to use thin wire. Air-drying is a slow process – it can take weeks, depending on the temperature and humidity and the size of the flowers. I use this method mostly for grasses, seed heads and berries that can’t be readily found for sale. But if you have the space to grow and dry flowers, this method is cheap and rewards your patience.
Evaporation
The evaporation method – putting flowers in a vase with a couple of inches of water, and letting them dry as the water evaporates – is also considered an air-drying technique. It can also result from simply forgetting to take flowers out of a vase! It’s worth experimenting with different varieties: I’ve found it works well for hydrangeas and alliums, and I’ve even had success with tulips.
The evaporation method generally yields a very different result to the desiccant drying method described below – it gives the flowers a more rustic, shrivelled look. It can also provide some variety: while the upside-down hanging method results in straight stems, with the evaporation method the flowers will often droop and their stalks will dry in a curve, which can give a handy additional design option. You could experiment with most everlastings using this method, and with grasses too.
Desiccant or silica-drying
The most effective desiccant is silica, which comes in granules that look and feel like sugar. Silica works well with most flowers. It is much quicker than air-drying, and flowers which can be air-dried can also be silica-dried if you want to save time. I often use this method for flowers I grow in my garden, especially more delicate flowers with thin petals such as spring blossom, poppies, cornflowers, forget-me-nots, marigolds, roses, elderflower and elderflower berries. When done well, this drying method produces flowers that resemble lifelike replicas of their fresh versions, only smaller and typically a darker shade. With foliage, using silica instead of pressing can keep more of a three-dimensional, realistic look.
Silica comes in crystals of different sizes – the smaller the better, to minimise the risk of the crystals leaving indents or marks on the delicate petals. You can buy silica that is specifically marketed as being suitable for drying flowers. You’ll need at least 1kg (2lb) of silica crystals. Take care with silica: some people’s skin is sensitive to it, and inhaling silica dust over long periods can lead to a lung condition called silicosis, so wear a mask if you’ll be working with it a lot.
Silica preserves a flower’s shape by removing moisture from it quickly, before it can wilt. The method involves burying the flower in silica crystals in an airtight container – I use a plastic food container – and leaving for usually no more than a day or two. Bigger, thicker flowers will take longer, as will flowers with lots of petals. I label my containers with the date and the type of flowers, and also the number of flowers so I don’t miss any when taking them out.
Try not to put different types of flowers in the same container, as they may dry at a different rate, and leave plenty of space between them. Pour the crystals over gradually, moving the petals slightly as necessary to ensure the crystals cover them all. You’ll need to cover smaller flowers such as forget-me-nots to a depth of at least 1 cm (½ inch), and 2 cm (¾ inch) for larger ones such as poppies or cornflowers.
An alternative to silica is very fine clean sand – though technically not a desiccant, it also allows moisture to evaporate while preserving the shape of a flower. It does take much longer, a bit like the air-drying – usually weeks instead of days. Unlike using silica, don’t cover your container with a lid as air must be able to circulate to prevent mildew.
Pressing
You can buy flower presses, but I don’t have one myself – I find that heavy books work well enough, as long as they don’t have glossy pages. Simply layer your foliage between two sheets of paper towel, put it inside the book and place it somewhere warm and dry. This method of drying is cheap, but slow – it can take weeks for foliage to dry completely, depending on its thickness. I mostly use this method for ferns and other foliage, but you can also press flowers to incorporate in your designs – flat and three dimensional versions of the same flower in an embroidery can work together well. As mentioned earlier, take care not to pick foliage too late in the season, as it becomes brittle and crumbly when dry. I also like to press tree seed heads, such as ash and maple, to avoid them curling up as they dry.
Storing dried flowers
Store dried flowers in closed containers to avoid dust, insects and reabsorption of moisture. If you use see-through plastic containers, keep them in a dark cupboard to avoid the flowers’ colours fading. I put mine in black cardboard boxes with a couple of silica gel sachets – you can buy these, or save them from purchases of items such as shoes and electronics – then I label what’s in the box, and seal it in a ziplock plastic bag. Try to keep them in a place that doesn’t get too hot, as heat can also affect the preservation of colour.
How to create a meadow hoop design
I first created this hoop design as an ode to my garden, using only flowers I’d foraged and dried. But I realised it can be explored as a design principle by thinking of the composition in terms of flowers growing up towards the top of the hoop, becoming more sparse and leaving a crescent shaped empty space. Grasses and flowers with small heads are particularly suited to this design, with the bigger flowers at the bottom.
from BBC Gardeners World Magazine https://ift.tt/gOVJs14
