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Drying Flowers in the Microwave

10/30/2020 12:46 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

DRYING FLOWERS IN THE MICROWAVE

 Edited by Suzanne Ress (from a posting to the AVConnection )

All those beautiful blossoms do not have to “go to waste.”  They can be dried and used decoratively in crafts – on greeting cards, as a mounted display, or any way you can imagine. Basic supplies for drying in the microwave can be bought at Home Depot and a fabric store. I have seen kits available in some garden supply catalogues.

General Directions:

The microwave flower drying kit consists of two terra cotta tiles, four pieces of white felt, and two pieces of white cotton fabric.

Take your flowers and sandwich them in between the pieces like a flower sandwich:  tile, 2 felt pieces, cotton piece, flowers, cotton piece, felt pieces, and top with the remaining tile.

Microwave for the appropriate time. You will need to experiment to find out what works best. I got good results with single blossoms by microwaving at full power for 1-minute, waiting about 5-minutes, microwaving for 30-seconds, waiting, then a final microwave for 30-seconds.

After microwaving, let the whole thing cool, until the tiles are just warm, before removing the flowers. Then carefully peel away the layers of material, and you have a beautifully dried, onionskin-thin flower.

If the flower breaks apart, you have microwaved it for too long. If the flower still appears too moist, cover it back up and stick it back in the microwave for a bit longer. Experiment first, don’t try to use your last favorite flower to experiment with. When drying larger blossoms, you will need to microwave more than with smaller blossoms, but use a shorter microwave time, like 20-seconds, and wipe extra moisture off the inside of the tile.

If the flower is dried properly, it should peel away easily from the cotton fabric in one piece. Drying flowers of the same size together should give more uniform results, rather than trying to dry a big, double blossom along with a smaller single blossom.

Important Information:

Some “fading” characteristics can’t be avoided. For example, purples tend to turn darker, and whites tend to brown out slightly.

The white pieces of cotton will stain from the flowers’ drying. You should wash them every so often.

Comments

  • 11/01/2020 11:37 AM | Cindy Brooks (Administrator)
    Interesting. Now we need more ideas to use the blossoms! Thank you!
    Link  •  Reply


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