Earth: Pressing Flowers and Other Bits of Nature

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One of the best ways to appreciate the environment is to spend a little time observing and enjoying the outdoors. This doesn't have to mean a big camping trip or an entire day on the nature trail.

You can take ten minutes at lunch to walk around, and look at nearby natural beauty--even if that's only a butterfly enjoying some planted flowers! Or sit in your back yard and watch the squirrels climb up the tree, or listen to the birds singing to each other.

Don't just look for "pretty" things either. I've even enjoyed looking at wildflowers that some might call "weeds," or mushrooms growing along the sidewalk.

I previously took a course in Nature Journaling. Now my instructor, Kelly Johnson, author of Wings, Worms and Wonder has a new book available. It's a book about flower pressing and nature-inspired art journaling.

Pressed  An Herbarium Inspired Art Journal is an instruction book/herbarium/journal that offers a way to collect natural souvenirs from near and far. An herbarium is basically a pressed flower/leaf/nature collection in book or loose page form.

After pressing your leaves, flowers, seeds, fallen feathers or other bits of nature, you can add them to your herbarium. Make a note of the date and location where you found your treasures.

Take some time to look up the name of the flower or leaf if you can. If you have a photo, you can upload it to iNaturalist, and one of the members will help you identify your observation. Once you start learning more about these bits and pieces of the world around you, you'll be hooked!

You'll start noticing the smallest wildflower, and wanting to add each type of leaf to your collection. The more you learn, the more you'll appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Hint: You can place your flowers in a folded piece of typing paper, and place that in the back of a heavy book for several weeks. Or you can get fancy with a real flower press.




Comments

  1. Donna W.December 14, 2018 at 6:49 PM

    Great idea ...a craft I had forgotten about. I have wanted to start my herb journal with my own drawings of herbs, but it is winter .. alot.. in mn. The idea of pressing them, and then having the real plant to examine in the middle of winter when I have more time to draw them mindfully is wonderful. Wish I had read this sooner, as it is winter now.

    ReplyDelete

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