(Read more about them from our Wedding blogs)
Academies of Loudoun-DEBORAH CHAVES-Teacher, Agricultural Education-5712521980 shares;
The flowers have lasted beautifully in refrigeration and today my Plant Science students were thrilled to be able to learn and use them in many different ways. Some students learned how to ‘flower pound’ by arranging the flowers, petals, leaves in artistic patterns on unbleached muslin sandwiched between parchment paper. As they happily pounded away with mallet and hammers, the beautiful colors permeated the cloth making an everlasting piece of ‘art’. Some were then glued on cards, or on the re-purposed vases; placed in baskets decorated with the dried flowers; or left for the next project purpose. Other students made dyes from the flowers by placing flowers and water in glass lab beakers and then bringing to a boil on laboratory hot plates. The cloth was pre-soaked in a vinegar/water solution, rinsed and then placed in beakers filled with the simmering dye until the cloth absorbed the colors. They further experimented by adding salt and/or vinegar to the dyes to increase the color absorption and even tried doing some watercolor painting with them!
None of the plant material was wasted as whatever could not be used in the crafting such as stems, etc. was put in buckets to be composted for their outdoor classroom garden. What an enjoyable learning day they had! They are looking forward to continuing to learn from and utilize the ‘re-purposed’ flowers.
Our thanks again to all that donated the flowers and contributed so our class @ACL could learn and share how to repurpose these beautiful flowers.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose…” Ecclesiastes 3:1
“Love never fails” 1Corinthians 13:8.
thedailylily.com 
Nice Job, Debi!
I saw Prince William make a speech in Brazil for COP30 Climate Summit. And, gave his Earthshot Prize.
Prince William said;”I grew up with my father – The King – talking about the power of nature and the importance of harmony in the natural world.
Thanks for sharing all the pictures of how the flowers were turned into bookmarks! This is just awesome, and I’m sure Debi and her students had a great time being involved in the process of repurposing these beautiful flowers. It was so cool seeing and hearing the “pounding” on the table. 🥰
Debi, taught my 5 yr old granddaughter the art of flower pounding and she made a wall hanging!
I agree with you, Tammy, the pounding was music to the ear!
I wanting to say how much we enjoyed seeing you and your grandsons at the pumpkin patch. 🎃
I would love to see a picture of your little granddaughter’s wall hanging. I bet it is awesome! Yes, the pumpkin patch is always fun times! 🎃 🥰
Another thing the students enjoyed making that filled our classroom with fragrance was potpourri. They tested different combinations of essential oils and settled on a couple of favorite blends. Then orris root powder was used as a fixative tp preserve the aroma. The mixture was left in sealed containers for a few days and then measured into small clear corsage bags and tied with a festive Christmas bow.
Dried petals, flower heads and some leaves were used in the potpourri mixture.