DIY Flower Pounding Wall Hanging

In this art project, I’m going to show you how to create an easy DIY flower pounding wall hanging using fresh flowers!

We’ve all heard of pressed flowers, but have you heard of pounded flowers? Flower pounding is hammering a flower until you make art.

Check out our 50 state flower coloring pages, too!

Typically flower pounding is done on fabric to absorb the pigment released from the flowers when you hit them with a hammer. I learned from experience the best types of flowers and leaves to use for flower pounding are large petal flowers and leaves that are thin and highly pigmented.

Supplies needed for this DIY flower pounding art project:

• Fresh Flowers
• Fabric (we used a scrap piece of craft linen)
• Hammer
• Chopsticks (we always have some left over from takeout food)
• Hot Glue Gun
• Board (for pounding flowers on – cushion the board with a towel underneath to lesson the noise of the hammering)
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Masking Tape
• Yarn
• Fork

Creating the Canvas

The first step to creating the canvas is to lay it flat on the board and lay one chopstick across the top.  Use the chopstick to measure how wide the wall hanging will be.  Leave about a half an inch of room on each end of the chop stick and draw lines to guide you for cutting each side of the canvas.

I used the ruler as a guide and made our wall hanging about twelve inches long.

Using the hot glue gun, add a small line of hot glue along a chop stick and attach one stick to each end of the canvas.  Allow it to set and add another small line of hot glue on the stick and roll the stick inward to fold the canvas over the chopstick so the chopsticks are covered when it hangs on the wall.  Turn your canvas over to arrange the flowers on the other side.

Flower Arranging

Once the canvas is finished, it’s time to arrange the flowers.  Arrange the flowers as you would like and attach each one with masking tape.  Try to spread the petals across the fabric for the best results.  It may take a lot of little pieces of tape.  Try not to attach the tape too firmly to the canvas to avoid it leaving behind sticky residue.

Once you’re done arranging  your flowers, C A R E F U L L Y turn over your wall hanging.  You’ll be pounding the flowers on the BACK of the canvas.

DIY Flower Pounding

Now it’s time to pound the flowers.  Carefully hammer the entire arrangement of flowers.  You don’t want to miss any flowers or leaves or you’ll have gaps in your design.  This style of process art leaves the results to the imagination, so it’s fun to see how it will actually turn out when you’re finished.

You’ll see the pigment from the flowers start seeping into the canvas as you pound the flowers.  Once you’ve hammered all of the leaves and flowers.  CAREFULLY turn your design back over and peel the tape back.  Most of the flowers and leaves will stick to the tape.

Next, remove any large pieces of flowers or leaves stuck to the canvas and allow it to dry. Once it’s fully dry you can easily rub off any other remaining plant material.

While you wait for your wall hanging to dry, you can attach the mini pom-poms.

How to Make Mini Pom-Poms

Depending on how large you want to make your pom-poms, you can use two fingers or a fork to wrap the yarn around.  The fork will make a slightly smaller pom-pom than your fingers.

To a use a fork to make a mini pom-pom, simply wrap the yarn around the fork (I wrapped it round about 20 times in the image below).  Tie the wrapped yarn tightly in the middle and remove from the fork.  All you need to do is cut the yarn loops and you have a pom-pom!  Fluff the pom-pom and trim any excess yarn to make a nice round shape.

Finishing Touches

To attach the mini pom-poms, tie them at each end of the chopsticks and secure them will a little hot glue on the back to keep the pom-poms from sliding off the chopsticks.

Attach a piece of yarn to hang the wall hanging and remove any excess dried plant material.  You can rub it off lightly with your fingers or use a small brush to loosen it from the fabric.

It’s that easy to create a beautiful wall hanging for your home or as a gift!

Updated Results

After a few days of hanging on our wall, we discovered the orange of the poppies faded.  If you intend for the art you create to be permanent, take a good photo of your results to keep.  I’ve read that various flower pigments will respond differently to air, light, heat, etc.  I guess with mother nature – one never knows!  I’ve also researched that you can treat the fabric with various chemicals prior to hammering the flowers and you can also try heat setting the pigments once the fabric has tried.

I did not want to complicate the project as  I consider this a process art project – the results will vary and it will keep changing over time.  The activity of making it alone is very fun and creative.  The photo below is how our wall hanging has changed.  Most of the colors are still very visible with the exception of the poppies.  I guess it’s like the poppies in real life, their beauty is short-lived.