Ironbridge Fine Arts Recycling Program
Flowers are such an integral part of any wedding day, and we see many brides and grooms who like to preserve the memory of their day by drying and framing their wedding flowers. We have dried and framed many bouquets, button holes, posies and table centres and they make such a special piece of art to be treasured for years to come!
Many florists will offer a service of drying the flowers following your special day, however, we get asked so often how to dry wedding flowers we thought why not write about it and give you some simple methods to drying them…
Technique 1
- Remove any foliage and ribbon from your arrangement.
- Dry the foliage separately on a flat surface, best results have come from using an airing rack and place a pile of paper on top to flatten and avoid the leaves shriveling and curling.
- Once the foliage is removed tie elastic round the bottom of the bouquet wrapping the elastic around the individual stems (this way as the flowers dry and shrink you they will still be held tight in position).
- Hang upside down in a dark, warm and dry area until the flowers have dried.
- Once dry you can remove the elastic from the stem and arrange back to the original shape re attaching the ribbon.
- There are specialist clear floral sprays that can be applied to the flowers to coat and preserve them.
- Choose a moulding with a suitable depth to allow the flower arrangement room, choose a conservation or museum mount board in your preferred colour for the flowers to be attached to.
- A museum glass such as Clarity by Larson Juhl can give up to gives 99% visible light transition and 70% UV protection which will allow you to protect your flowers and also see them with total clarity!
Technique 2
- Place silica gel beads into a sealable container.
- Remove any foliage and ribbon and place flowers individually on top of the silica gel.
- Continue to fill the container until the flowers are submerged.
- Seal the container and leave to do its magic for anywhere up to two weeks checking on them.
- The benefit of silica gel is that flower colour remain.
- Remove flowers from silica gel either by pouring the silica out of the container and revealing your beautiful dried flowers.
- You can now re arrange your flowers back to the original shape and re attach your ribbon.
- Choose a moulding with a suitable depth to allow the flower arrangement room, choose a conservation or museum mount board in your preferred colour for the flowers to be attached to.
- A museum glass such as Clarity by Larson Juhl can give up to gives 99% visible light transition and 70% UV protection which will allow you to protect your flowers and also see them with total clarity!
Some flowers may react differently to the above drying techniques so we do recommend double checking with your florist when you place your order. Especially as some florists use a preserving spray which can effect the way they dry.
We have worked with many couples in the past and even collected flowers directly from the wedding venue. Please get in touch for further information or to discuss how you could capture some special memories from your big day!
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