I Turn Old Flowers Into Art For A Living

hey i'm lacey i'm the owner of green florals and i make a living by pressing flowers i run frame florals which is a preservation studio based in brooklyn and i press and preserve flowers and frame them today i'm going to talk to you about pressing flowers and the process behind what i do in my small business basically what i do is i take fresh flowers whether that be from a wedding an engagement a baby shower or from the flower market or from somebody's backyard and i press them and turn it into art frame florals was born about four years ago after my own wedding after i got married my own wedding flowers became so important to me i couldn't imagine them all being thrown in the trash i saw them all on the porch of my wedding venue and i was heartbroken over the idea of leaving them all there so i dreamed up my ideal flower preservation i envisioned a floating frame leaves and flowers suspended between glass organic colors something minimal but beautiful after researching googling trying to find something like what i had envisioned in my head and realizing it didn't exist i press my wedding flowers between the pages of my heaviest books at home and frame them in a float frame and from that frame florals was born i taught myself the art of flower preservation through pressing how to start a creative business and i've been so lucky to preserve so many flowers here's a little bit about what i've learned over the last four years of pressing flowers preservation through pressing works by flattening fresh flowers out and extracting all their water and moisture content leaving you with pressed flattened dried forever flowers the process is pretty much the same for every project that i do the flowers are fresh and they go into the flower press but some flowers need extra care some flowers need extra time there are a lot of differences between the flowers and sometimes you need to do different things flowers that have higher water content like snapdragons white roses white lizianthus antherium chrysanthemums tend not to press well and will mold and brown pretty quickly in the flower press ruskas tends to fade pretty quickly and turns from green to brown often as well asparagus ferns and wax flowers aren't great for pressing either since their leaves tend to fall off easily flowers with little water content like baby's breath butterfly ranunculus dusty miller delphinium eucalyptus astrantia sweet peas caspia yarrow ferns rice flour all pressed beautifully and consistently because they hold less water bulkier flowers like queen anne's lace ranunculus spray roses flushing bright protea carnations thistle press best once the middle of the flower is removed i remove the bulkier petals from the middle and then press them and some bulkier flowers press best as individual petals or flowers hydrangea flowers pressed beautifully but need to be taken apart roses as well their petals press so nicely when plucked from the stem the flower press works by bolting two pieces of plywood together in between the two pieces of wood are cardboard paper flowers paper and cardboard in that order white construction paper craft paper or unprinted newspaper works best when pressing since it can hold the moisture from the flowers some common misconceptions out there tell you to use parchment paper which isn't great for all flowers as it's going to make your flowers mold way quicker and the moisture has nowhere to go don't use paper towels either as little bumps in the paper towels will leave the impressions on your flowers as well the fresher the flowers the better your results will be pressing already dried flowers will likely result in brittle petals breaking and crumbling fresh is best flowers like ranunculus or lizianthus will need at least a month to fully properly dry once your flowers and greens are completely pressed they should feel papery and have no moisture left in them if they feel a little cold to the touch or damp they need more time try to handle your press flowers with a tweezer since it makes it way easier to pick them up and arrange them when arranging and designing i love to set all the flowers out and pick the best looking stems for framing i love a mixture of texture color and size picking flowers that give a nice contrast flow and tell a bit of a story as to the season is my favorite part about arranging press flowers the mixture of all the elements gives the frames a feeling like they were just pulled straight from nature i love working with flowers as my medium of choice because unlike other mediums they're organic every single one is different you're never going to see the same two flowers and because of that it makes every piece even if it's the same type of is completely unique and special before i started frame florals i was a preschool teacher it was a typical nine to five i had a salary i had health insurance all of it and i just knew that there was something else that i wanted to do it kept nagging at me i just felt like there was a creative passion that i had to follow and i saved up for a while i got a bunch of side jobs i really funded my dream for a full year before i went full time with it and i have no regrets i think it was the best thing i've ever done if you've ever thought about starting a small business if there's something that you think would make a great small business something that is a hobby of yours that you want to transform i would say go for it this is your sign i did it and i feel like if you have the passion and you really want to do it you can so if you're in that position no you're not alone there's a whole community of people out there who have started similarly to me i found them and they've become some of my closest friends part of my whole small business community and if you're thinking about doing it reach out to people put the idea out there speak it and it'll happen the past four years of running frame florals have been amazing there have been a lot of ups and downs and i've learned a lot about myself and about running a business and i can't wait to see what flowers i have the honor of preserving next [Music] you

Channel: Tasty Home

Views: 807,974

Keywords: pressed flowers, pressed flower art, pressed leaves, how to press flowers, pressing flowers, diy pressed flowers, dried flower, dried flowers, diy, how to dry flowers, how to, home decor, crafts, tutorial, entrepreneur, small business tips, small business, flowers, small business ideas, small business advice, pressed flowers diy

Id: YBORgUKIfdo

Length: 6min 17sec (377 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 17 2020