Embedding flowers in paper

After doing more research on natural pigments, my attention was drawn to flowers. After seeing floral patterns in William Morris's work and seeing the vibrant colours they come in. I decided to experiment with embedding flowers into my paper. To add some colour and design to my paper, without using anything unnatural or artificial. Below is a video I made showing the process of how I get the flowers into the paper. I find this technique easiest as it seals them into the paper so they did fall out once dry.

I found that I had to ensure the flowers had no moisture in when adding them into the paper, or else they'd warp and wouldn't stick to the paper. The piece on the left is the paper from the above video still wet. The pigment from the petals hasn't bled and the paper still has a rather smooth texture. The piece on the right is the same piece of paper with the embedded flower in but dry. I then photographed it on a lightbox. This gives an extra layer to the paper as you can see the different individual piece of paper in the new handmade paper. Including pieces of the shredded paper which weren't blended fully. Using the lightbox from behind the paper shows the weak points and where the flower petal creates a 'window' and it gives like a stain glass effect. The colours also bled from the dried petal into the paper, which gives a contrast between the fine lines of the veins and the pigment from the petals bleeding into the paper.

This piece above is the dried paper of the first piece in this post. Its photographed on a lightbox, where you can see the variety of thicknesses in the paper, and how it appears cracked, but it's just where the paper is thinner, so more light is let through.

I did more experiments with compositions using smaller petals which I could arrange in different ways. I used these small pink petals from a flower and arranged them in a linear pattern. I find the subtle hints of pink give a contrast to the imperfect white paper background. The alternating pattern of the petals gives a balanced look which makes it look more pleasing to look at.  However, an issue I noticed was: to get such a neat design with the petals I had to place them onto the wet pulp after it had been lifted up out of the water. This means that the petals aren't technically embedded into the paper, but are just placed on top. This makes the paper rather delicate and fragile, and I noticed the petals would fall off. The fibers of the paper hold the petals to the paper when its embedded, but when it's just placed on top the fibers aren't holding the petals in, causing them to dry out without being held in the paper.



Upon reflection, I find the pigment which bleeds from the large lily petals most effective, and it gives a softer look, and blends the line between the harsh bond veins and the plain white background. So in my final I think the larger petals will be more effective when looking from a distance compared to the smaller petals. But I think I will mix some smaller petals into my composition to break up the larger pieces and give a variety of patterns for one to look at.