About
Nutwood Flower Press is a small attempt at discovering and preserving botanical beauty, creating and giving delight with simple finds in nature, simple but real. Nothing lasts forever, but these cards will carry meaning and intent, these frames will capture the time and memory, and the memories will last.
How I stumbled upon flower pressing
I stumbled upon flower pressing while holding a small piece of silver-green leaf—the feathery foliage of Artemisia ‘Powis Castle,’ to be exact—against a matte black coffee cup. It looked astoundingly exquisite.
Such a tiny specimen of nature’s bountiful creations, and so lovely, once set apart and admired with curiosity.
I looked online for flower pressing techniques and made an ambitious amount of wooden presses in my father’s garage.
A lady who lived nearby, on Nutwood Street, scattered wildflower seeds all over her front yard. In spring, all sorts of wild and delicate things bloomed everywhere—even through sidewalk cracks—making her front yard the happiest one in the neighborhood. I knocked on her door and she told me to pick whatever I wanted, any time.
The traditional slow pressing method requires 3-5 weeks. Afterwards, it’s sorting through a lot of materials. From sheets and sheets of the same feathery leaves, maybe a handful are perfect to my eye.
I’m a designer by trade, rarely making something from nothing (a talent of artists’ and nature’s), mostly obsessed with the perfect arrangement of given elements. So I pore over the pressed botanicals for hours, days, for the perfect composition.
Then comes the very delicate and meditative part of gluing things down, but not overly meditative with an ever vigilant watch to keep my cat from rearranging the unglued pieces.
Please enjoy the one-of-a-kind cards, frames and keepsakes. All made from the love of making. I also share that love by hosting pressed flower workshops and craft times, where you will be surely delighted by both nature’s creativity and your own.
Marisa