Educator Resource: Flower Hammer Art

Flower Hammer Art

Find more sustainably minded activities and inspiration on our ‘Resources Hub: Sustainability for Early Childhood Educators.‘

Written by Emma Stephenson – Diploma Educator, Sustainability Leader

What to gather: 

• Hammers
• Flowers
• White paper or fabric

Method and best practices:

Continuing the theme of introducing environmentally friendly and sustainable art practices, we picked some seasonal flowers from the garden and collected a few hammers from the tool shed. These were to be our art materials for the day.

The children gathered sheets of handmade paper they had previously made from recycled scraps and laid them out on the table in the kitchen garden area. They intentionally placed the flower petals on top of the paper, raised their hammers, and began beating the petals into the paper to decorate it. The children watched in awe as the petals—and their colour pigment—were transferred onto the paper.

This is a wonderful way to bring art-making outdoors. The children explored how colour can be sourced from the natural environment in a responsible way, for example, only picking one flower each. They also pondered how the action and force of beating with the hammer could stain and dye the paper—or was it some kind of magic?

You can also hammer flowers onto light coloured fabric, tote bags and table runners – it’s suggested to soak the fabric first in alum. See The First Day of Home‘s post on ‘flower pounding’ which includes a fabric related section.

Thoughts, goals and/or extensions:

Our aim is to involve the children in all aspects of a creative arts project process, from making our own paper from recycled scraps to resourcing our own materials from the natural world and then showcasing their creativity by imparting their own design, decoration and/or mark at the end of the process.