Garden Poundings

I went to the Bothell Arts Festival with my mom and aunt the other day, and came across a booth where the artist was demonstrating her garden pounding technique using various plants, a hammer and some cotton cloth.  I had to try it myself!  

 Check out Pederson's Garden Poundings here.  

 I ventured out into the garden on this rainy morning and collected these flowers and leaves for my first pounding experiment.  

I taped the first leaf to the back of my cotton fabric:

 Then, flipping the fabric over, and using the edge of the hammer, as was demonstrated by the artist, I hammered away until the entire leaf showed through:

 I think it worked fairly well for a first attempt.  The yellow buttercup borders were not a well-defined as the others, but that's ok.  I like the pop of yellow.  Pederson would take this design and scan it into the computer for printing, since the colors do not stay vibrant long after they are pounded into the fabric.  I think it would be neat to print out the designs onto fabric and use it in a quilt, on a bag, or other crafty type of thing.