My Pressed Flower Journey

My journey into flower pressing began in the early 1980s, and continues today, more than 35 years later. I'm still as  passionate as ever about this wonderful art form and relaxing pastime. Once I tried it, I was immediately hooked. The colors, forms and textures were amazing. Flowers going into a press might not come out the same color they went in, and it’s always a little magical to see the transformation.

My passion began accidentally when I ran out of room for dried flowers. The sheer volume of dried flowers took up much more storage space than pressed flowers. My house and shed were filled with gorgeous dried flowers, and I had no more room to add to my beautiful collection. Each time I saw new blooms that I wanted to keep I felt sad that they would just wither and die, never to be seen again. Then I discovered flower pressing and never looked back.

My husband crafted several large flower presses for me out of plywood, nuts and bolts. They were very functional and did the job. I was off on my new endeavor. I bought some large sheets of blotting paper and cut them to size to fit the presses. I was able to stack 5 or 6 layers in each press separated by sheets of newspaper to wick out moisture and speed the process. That would amount to being able to dry up to a couple of hundred flowers at a time per press. I’m still using those same presses today and can’t begin to imagine how many flowers I’ve processed with them. I've given a couple of them to friends, and most recently had my husband create three more for me. Included is a small 'mobile' press that I keep in our vehicle just in case I run across something beautiful that I can't resist putting in a press.

New 2019 homemade flower press 

One of my rough but still functional presses from the 1980s

Next I had to figure out how to store my new palette of colorful flowers. I purchased some inexpensive plastic stacking desktop drawers. The kind that holds an 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of paper. I filled them in no time at all. Storing 25-50 flowers per sheet I carefully filled the drawers with stacks of paper and flowers. I also managed to acquire a floor model jewelry case that works great and holds tons of flowers.

Storage drawers

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A friend had recently purchased a heat laminator and invited me to take a look to see what it could do. We were experimenting with it and decided to put a few leaves into one of the pouches to see what would happen. What came out of the laminator was fascinating and started me thinking about the possibilities. I started making bookmarks and cards with my treasures.

Over the years I've pressed tens of thousands of flowers and made thousands of bookmarks, cards and wall hangings. I'm still passionate about pressed flowers and you can find me pressing flowers and beautiful Maine fall foliage from first bloom in the spring to last leaf drop in the fall. The colder months are spent creating with my little treasures and remembering the beautiful days I picked my palette of spectacular blooms and dreamed of what I would create with them.