Bummer to hear health is in the way of getting to the finish line of your hobby project.
I’m curious about the Flower Press as a possible gift to the gardener wife.
Might you have a link that will provide some insight?
The concept of a flower press is exceedingly simple. You have a top platen, a piece of blotter paper, the flower to be pressed, another piece of blotter paper and a bottom platen. Add to that a way to create some pressure on the layers. You can stack layers by placing a cardboard spacer between the sandwiches of blotter paper/flower/blotter paper.
The blotter paper has to be removed daily and replaced. The removed blotter paper can be reused once it has been allowed to dry out. Otherwise mold will form. It can be reused as many times as you want as long as it is not worn out and there is no mold.
When I was in grade school, a friend’s mother used to press flowers. She would open a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica in the middle and place the layers on the pages and close the book. That was her flower press.
I got my inspiration from looking at Etsy flower presses.
I had special considerations.
First there were several pits of hardware that a child could lose. I wanted to make all (or most) of the hardware permanently attached. That might not be a consideration if you are making one for an adult.
Second, it was to be a gift. So it had to look “finished” enough to qualify as gift-like. I think you are going to probably want to do the same.
Third, I wanted to make it as complete a kit as possible, including appropriately sized blotter paper, spacers, tweezers and card stock for a first try at a finished product. Again, this might not apply in your situation.
Here is my version. In my version the corner posts are permanently attached to avoid loss. They are typically loose pieces.
The metal washers at the top have been replaces by UHDP (Ultra High Density Polypropylene), a material with high lubricity and abrasion resistance. It made a nice substitute for the washers. (I tried epoxying the metal washer onto the platen, but they quickly broke off.)
I added two rare earth magnets to hold the wing nuts, in an effort to reduce loss. There is some folding post hardware out there, but I could not find it and it looked prohibitively expensive.
For adult users, these are not considerations.
I added a template for cutting additional cardboard spacers and blotter paper. An alternative to blotter paper are sheets of old (at least 2 weeks old) newspaper sheets. The ink on newspaper dries slowly and two weeks is generally sufficient time to allow the ink to dry or it will transfer to the flowers).
I included a pair of specimen tweezers (different from eyebrow tweezers).
I did not include the glue for adhering the flowers to the card stock.
I originally use a single 1-1/2” diameter magnet, but the holding power was so great that I needed a pair of pliers to remove the wind nuts from the magnet. Even the smaller magnets are more easily removed by sliding the wing nuts off the magnet rather than pulling them off.
Flower presses are sized according to metric paper sizes. Mine were “A6” (about 4” x 6”). I made mine from 5/8” oak recycled from cabinet doors that I removed during a kitchen remodel.
I estimate that each press cost me about $4.00 including all supplies and the tweezer (but with no-cost recycled oak).
After all the design issues were resolved (and there were a lot of them), I set up a production line and produced a single lot of 10 pieces.
Brass screws, wing nuts, and washers would probably look richer, but would not stick to the magnets.
I purchased the cardboard and blotter paper from Amazon and cut to size. I have a guillotine style paper cutter and it went quickly. Cutting the blotter paper would be easy with a pair of scissors, but cutting the cardboard would otherwise require a utility knife to cut. The cardboard is corrugated, and could easily be recycled from old cartons. You can either buy the blotter paper or used recycled newspapers. There are plenty of instructions online.
A caveat:
After I decided that the flower presses were inappropriate for the financially challenged group I was producing for, I sought out people with artistic yearnings to gift to. It was surprisingly difficult to find anyone to accept one. I gave away two to acquaintances and one to my niece in May. As of now, none have actually used it. I have 7 left. I am thinking of gifting them to some high school art department.
In any case, if there is a way to check for interest in the pressing of flowers, I would do that before making the press.
Note: The closest match I could find for my presses on Etsy cost $165.00, and lacked the design considerations that would mitigate against lost hardware. So, if nicely done, a nice gift.
