Step-By-Step: An At-Home Art Project We Guarantee You Already Have The Supplies For

The first Virtual Art Studio event, which was held live on Zoom in early May, featured a guided step-by-step tutorial for making plant-based art using items found around your environment. UMMA Student Engagement Council member (and B.F.A. Art & Design student) Emily Considine led the tutorial for the project using dried flowers and leaves. 

“This project is a great way to connect with the natural environment and learn a bit more about the plants in your surrounding area,” Considine said. “Inspired by the exsiccatae (dried plant arrangement) tradition in many herbariums, I thought of this project as a way for families to still engage in art-making and the outside world without necessarily having a lot of specific art materials.”

All you need is an assortment of plant material (flowers, leaves, grass, etc), some glue, and something heavy, such as textbooks, that you can use for pressing. If you don’t have any glue on hand, there are a few ways you can make some at home.

You can find the video as well as written instructions, and a few examples from participants, below. Happy crafting!

Instructions:

1. Collect a small assortment of plant matter outside. 

2. Choose a base shape to work with, and set down an initial layer of plants in that shape on a sheet of paper. 

3. Glue down using a paintbrush, toothpick, or skewer to spread small bits of glue along the edges, centers, and/or stems of each plant and pressing them to the paper. Keep variations in color, size, and density in mind. 

4. Continue in small layers of setting and gluing plants until you have finished your image, then put a paper towel or sheet of newspaper over the piece and press for 2-3 weeks with a heavy box or stack of large books.

Examples:

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