PURPOSE

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Exploring design possibilities and techniques of pounding flowers and leaves onto fabric to produce botanical prints is an effective way to achieve a sustainable solution to manage floral waste.

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RESULTS

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Flowers produced a defined and realistic print on tightly woven fabrics. There was a distinctive color variation after heat setting but not much colorfastness after washing. Leaves produced a darker print when they were soaked in iron water solution before pounding. The ball-peen hammer worked well to get a fine print of the veins and edges.

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CONCLUSION

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The study shows that flower pounding can be a very effective and inexpensive sustainable print design method. Even though I have used flowers and leaves from my surroundings for the purpose of this project, there is more than enough floral waste in the world to suffice if this technique was to be adopted by designers and fashion brands.