Tatakizome, the art of flower pounding

Flower pounding, or Tatakizome, is an ancient Japanese technique of hammering plants to create patterns on fabric. It is a very simple technique that renders gorgeous results. All you need is fresh flowers, a hammer and either paper, canvas or fabric to transfer the flower “dye”.

I’ve recently discovered some absolutely gorgeous flower pounding art on Instagram. Before that, my good friend Debi, showed me some of her results with not only flower pounding but also flower dyeing, which is an art unto itself. Hers are some of the best I’ve seen!

I find that fresh flowers work best because the flowers at the grocery and flower shop contain dyes which aren’t natural. For the material, after many attempts, I discovered that 100% cotton fabric worked best to capture the plant color’s vibrancy. I tried watercolor paper and canvas and the results were murky. I’ve seen some amazing results with watercolor paper on Michelle Moore’s instagram @michellemooredesigns – if she ever has a class, I’ll be first in line!

Deb suggested washing the fabric first and drying it before prepping with a fabric mordant, using alum, to receive and retain the plants natural colors more effectively. I just ordered some alum online so I’ll let you know how it goes. You can also find it in the spice isle at your local grocery (mine was out). 1 gallon of lukewarm water to 2 Tbs of alum. Soak for 30 minutes and let dry naturally. I ordered some hemp material and I will do this mordant preparation when I get it. I can’t wait!

I’m having so much fun pounding away my frustrations and seeing the results… testing what works and what doesn’t. I’m still figuring out how to use the results of my Tatakizome in my artwork, but the wheels are definitely turning! I created these super tiny canvas bird art from some of my earlier tries and put it in the local free art library

I met the nicest couple at my local farmer’s market on Sunday and got a wildflower bouquet to try out. Jaclyn and Clarke own Fowl Creek Flowers and Jacki is going provide me with some more cosmos as well as amaranth at the next market.

I use wax paper on top of the flowers and paper towels underneath. I even love the way the flowers look on the paper towel afterward! 🙂 I can’t myself to throw them away.

Here are some of my latest attempts. The first is some dandelions that I picked from my neighbor’s front yard (they already think I’m crazy so…) For the dandelions, I ended up sprucing up the bouquet with some Golden fluid acrylics. The greens did not pound out as I’d hoped.

Today, I picked some beautiful and vibrant purple shoots from my hastas and added in some other flowers, weeds and leaves from the garden. I really love the result…

I’m going to keep going with this as I’m having such a blast! I find that hammering flowers not only helps me create something fun, but it releases my anxiety by pounding away at the flowers, stems and weeds! 🙂