Flower Press

 With appropriate care pressed flowers can last for hundreds of years! There are examples of pressed flowers dating from the late 17th century in the Natural History Museum. 

The first thing that you are going to want to do is collect some flowers to press. Have a look in your garden or when you go outside but be careful not to pick too many. It's best not to choose really thick flowers like roses as these can be difficult to press, but have a look and see what you can find

Once you have found some flowers you are going to get a book and then lie some sheets of newspaper on top, and then some kitchen roll on top of this

You can then carefully arrange your flowers on top of the kitchen roll. Make sure that the flowers don't overlap and that there is space between the flowers

You can then put a layer of kitchen roll on top of the flowers followed by a layer of newspaper and then a book on top. If you can put a big pile of books on top. 

Check on the flowers every day to make sure they are OK and after about a week they should be ready. As the flowers dry the kitchen roll and newspaper absorb the moisture from the flowers and prevent it from decaying but the dried flower keeps most of the pigments that produce colour.

The video tutorial for this activity is available on the Surrey Libraries Facebook page or the Surrey Libraries YouTube Channel