Craft Projects
A step-by-step guide to making pressed-flower coasters, from drying and pressing blooms to arranging them and sealing them in resin for a durable, heat-safe finish.
Pressed-flower coasters catch a bit of summer and keep it on your coffee table all year. A single bloom, flattened and preserved, floats inside clear resin like it was caught mid-fall. They look delicate and expensive, and they are neither hard nor costly to make once you understand the two halves of the process: pressing the flowers properly, and setting them in resin cleanly.
Patience is the real ingredient. Flowers need time to press and dry, and resin needs time to cure, so this is not an afternoon rush job. Spread across a week or two, though, it is a calm, rewarding project, and the finished coasters make some of the most admired handmade gifts you can give.
Success starts long before the resin, with the flowers themselves. The best candidates are thin, flat, and not too fleshy, because bulky blooms trap moisture and sit awkwardly under resin. Pansies, violas, cosmos, ferns, small daisies, and individual petals from larger flowers all press beautifully. Thick, water-heavy flowers like roses and succulents fight you every step of the way.
Pick your flowers when they are dry, ideally mid-morning after any dew has lifted, and choose blooms just short of fully open. Then press them. The classic method is a flower press or simply a heavy book: lay the flowers flat between sheets of absorbent paper, close the book, and weigh it down.
A few pressing pointers make a real difference:
Flowers must be completely dry before they meet resin, with no trace of moisture left inside. Any remaining water will eventually turn the bloom brown under the resin, ruining a coaster you spent real effort on. Pressing usually takes two to three weeks, and rushing this stage is the most common reason pressed-flower projects fail.
The slow, careful attention this stage demands is a familiar feeling if you enjoy other quiet handwork, the same steady patience that a good beaded bracelet asks of you.
Resin is wonderful stuff and deserves respect. Most craft resins are a two-part epoxy that you mix in equal or specific ratios, and while curing they can give off fumes, so work in a well-ventilated room and keep windows open. Wear disposable gloves, protect your surfaces thoroughly, and read the specific instructions on your resin, because brands vary in ratio and cure time.
Gather your kit before you open anything, because once resin is mixed the clock starts ticking:
Work in a dust-free spot if you can, because floating dust settles on curing resin and leaves a gritty surface. A warm room helps resin cure properly; a cold one leaves it tacky. Set out everything and mentally walk through the steps once before you mix.
Mix your resin exactly according to the ratio on the packaging. This is not a place to guess, because getting the two parts wrong leaves you with resin that never fully hardens or cures cloudy. Pour the two parts into a measuring cup and stir slowly and thoroughly for the full time the instructions specify, scraping the sides and bottom so no unmixed resin lurks there. Stir slowly, because whipping air in creates bubbles you will spend ages chasing later.
Pour a thin first layer into the bottom of each mould, just enough to create a base. Let it set until it is tacky but not fully hard, then arrange your pressed flowers face down onto this layer, since the bottom of the mould becomes the top of the coaster. Position them with a toothpick, exactly where you want them, remembering the arrangement will show through the finished top.
Once you are happy, pour a second layer of resin to fully cover the flowers and fill the mould. Now deal with bubbles. Passing a small torch flame briefly across the surface, or gently exhaling warm breath through a straw, coaxes trapped air to the top where it pops. Keep any flame moving and well away from the mould itself; you are warming the surface, not cooking it.
Cover each poured coaster with a box or lid to keep dust off, and leave it undisturbed to cure. Resist every urge to poke it. Cure times vary widely by product, from several hours to a couple of days, so trust the packaging rather than your impatience. A coaster that feels hard on top may still be soft underneath if you demould it too soon.
When fully cured, flex the silicone mould and pop the coaster out from the back. It should release cleanly with a satisfying give. If any edges feel sharp or uneven, smooth them gently with fine sandpaper; a quick pass with progressively finer grits, finishing wet, brings back a smooth edge without dulling the clear top.
To keep the coasters practical rather than purely decorative, add small felt or cork dots to the underside. This protects your furniture and stops the coasters sliding around. Most cured casting resins handle a warm mug well, but check your resin's heat tolerance, and use these for cool drinks and warm cups rather than piping-hot pans.
Pressed-flower coasters are the kind of handmade thing that makes people ask where you bought them, and there is quiet joy in saying you made them. Because so much of the effort is in the waiting, once you have flowers pressed and a workspace set up, making four or six at once takes little more effort than making one. A matched set in a variety of blooms looks far more intentional than a single coaster.
They also pair naturally with other handmade décor for a gift that feels like a whole collection rather than an afterthought. Set a few coasters beside a hand-poured soy candle and you have a warm, personal present that looks curated and costs very little. Press a few extra flowers whenever the garden is generous, and you will always have the makings of the next set waiting in a book on the shelf.
Rafael breaks skills into small, learnable steps and is patient with beginners. He believes anyone can make something good with a little practice.
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