the art of hapa zome

when a friend introduced me to the japanese practice of hammering flowers into fabric i was instantly hooked.

now i look at flowers and think… ‘i wonder what that would look like if i bashed it onto linen’ as opposed to ‘oh gosh wouldnt they look beautiful in a jar of water!’

i promise its fun, and leaves you with something truly unique. you can do it as a family; picking your flowers when out and about and get your toddler involved by letting them create the arrangement on the fabric scrap and hammering with supervision.

instant satisfaction.

you will need

a mallet or hammer

flowers and foliage of your choosing

linen or cotton fabric scraps or bags

a wooden chopping board or something hard to work on

tissue paper

what to do

simple - first step go out and pick your flowers and leaves. feel free to experiment a little with what might work. you want them fresh but not too wet so avoid picking first thing in the morning

(pansies and bluebells work beautifully)

arrange them onto your fabric, cover with tissue paper and simply hammer on top

discard your tissue paper and peel off the pulped flowers to reveal your abstract colour print beneath

you should note that the colour will bleed through to the other side of the bag unless you also place tissue paper within the bag to absorb the pigment. i created a few bags both with and without placing tissue inside, and then embroidered beads on for added detail