Pressed Flowers Wall Art

I wanted to preserve some dried summer flowers in clear glass and this project came to mind because I already had some uniform glass pieces laying around and similar implements used in making stained glass projects. 

Glass panels I used are leftovers from picture frames I used for another project. 

You will need:

• Two identical picture frame glass panels 
• Self adhesive copper tape 6-10mm wide (this can be special copper tape for stained glass or just a regular one)
• Masking tape
• Flux (soldering paste)
• Soldering iron and solder 
• Two small metal rings (if you want to hang the glass) 

• Preserved flowers, leaves, stems 

Collect your flowers and leaves and begin the drying process within a few hours of cutting them. That way they won't have time to wilt. 

You can go the usual way of pressing flowers between the book pages and waiting weeks for them to dry out or you can use a speedy microwave method. 

Remember, not all flowers and leaves microwave well, so always perform a test on a small batch- some flowers tend to lose their colour, some leaves turn brown etc. 

To speed dry your flowers you will need kitchen towels and a heavy, microwave safe container with a flat bottom (casserole dish for example). 

1. Place all your flowers face down on a piece of kitchen towel and cover them with another kitchen towel.
2. Put in the microwave and weigh it down with a casserole dish.
3. "Cook" them on the lowest setting in 30 second bursts.
4. Check frequently because times differ massively, fern leaves only need about 1 minute, while pansies need between 2-3 minutes longer (also depends on the microwave and flower sizes). 
5. Once dry, place all flowers between two sheets of baking paper or tissue paper and place in a heavy book for a few hours. This step is just to iron them in case they curled around the edges. 

Clean the glass panels to remove any dirt and finger prints.

Place one glass panel (clean side up) on the table and arrange your flowers in a desired pattern. Cover with the remaining panel and use masking tape on three sides of the glass to secure it temporarily.  

Carefully apply copper tape to one side, then, remove masking tape from the next side and apply copper tape again and repeat until the whole glass panel is edged with copper tape. 

If you need it, place a strip of masking tape 2-4 mm from the edge of the glass and use that as your guide when applying the copper tape.

Thinner copper edge looks much better than thicker one, so keep that in mind.

1. Use a tool of some sort - pen, pencil or brush to run around the edge of the glass to flatten/ burnish the copper tape.
2. Use a small brush to apply flux to the copper tape.
3. Apply solder to all glass sides as well as front and back. 

To hang the glass panel you will need to add some rings. I used leftover jewellery rings.

Cut a small part of the ring with pliers, so it fits the frame better and apply flux to the whole ring. Hold the ring with pliers and apply solder to the ring. Use more solder to fuse it to the frame.

Add a chain or a thin rope. 

It looks great on the wall, but it's also interesting when hanged in the window, especially in full sun.