Flower Pounding Art Project

Use New Tools To Make Art: Ages 5+

The pigments in flowers aren’t just to make nature beautiful, or to attract pollinators! We can use them to make beautiful art, while also learning how to use tools.

Vocabulary:

• Print
• Transfer
• Hammering
• Pigment

Materials:

 Foam pieces (2 small pieces per child – can be reused)
 Watercolor paper OR index cards
 Small kid-sized hammers
 Gathered flowers & leaves from outside

Directions

1. Walkthrough your yard or local park, and pick flowers, leaves, grasses; whatever may catch
   your child’s fancy or yours (please be careful of poison oak and other dangerous plants!). Your child will need two pieces of foam, a piece of watercolor paper or an index card, and a hammer.
2. Place the paper/index card on top of one piece of foam, then arrange the flowers in whatever pattern desired.
3. Place the other piece of foam on top of the flowers.
4. Then, tap the foam with the hammers to imprint on the paper. It takes a little while, and your kids can check periodically to see if it’s working. It truthfully only takes little taps, not hard hits.
5. Once finished imprinting the flowers, children can also use pens to outline the design or add to the print.

Whats Happening?

The force of the hammer is pressing the flower pigment (juices) out of the flower and it transferring it and dying the paper. Sometimes, the color that is transferred is not what is expected (there are grasses that turn out purple!)
Connections:
Read a book about colors or art, if you have one.