FLOWER PRESS STUDIOS FEATURED IN THE SIMPLE THINGS MAGAZINE THIS MONTH

Always lovely to for Flower Press Studios to feature in a magazine and this month I’m in the Simple Things magazine discussing “My day In cups of tea”. Take a look behind the scenes and see the work that goes into preparing bespoke pressed flower artworks. The main artwork featured in the article is up on the website and for this week only I’m offering free postage to the UK.

If you haven’t checked out The Simple Things magazine before it’s a lovely independent mag which features a variety of articles from food to gardening and homes. www.instagram.com/thesimplethings

Also this week I’m starting to get lots of enquiries for pressed flower artworks made from wedding bouquets. If you are getting married this Summer don’t throw your flowers away bring them here to Flower Press Studios and let me make something beautiful for you to treasure. Just check out our instagram www.instagram.com/flowerpressstudios to see some of our recent reviews. Follow me for updates too as there are always lots of new pictures being made and new products launching.

New wedding trends for 2024

I’ve spent today researching the new trends for weddings in 2024. Inspired by this post on Bridebook https://bridebook.com/uk/article/13-key-wedding-trends-for-2024-and-beyond I was interested to read that rustic vibes are the way to go this year which is great news for Flower Press Studios. Also sustainability and green tones again are big trends for this year and fit perfectly into the Flower Press Studios ethos. I love repurposing wedding bouquets that will otherwise go to waste and ultimately end up in the bin (or possibly in the compost bin!). By bringing your blooms to me though I can create a lovely personalised keepsake from your wedding flowers for your special day. I’ve recently teamed up too with a couple of local picture framers who are local to me in Coulsdon as as a small business owner I want to support other local businesses when I can. I aim to repurpose and reuse packaging as much as I can. It’s the inside of the packaging that’s important to me in work and in life! Also so pleased that Gen Z are finally emerging as customers of mine. At a couple of wedding fairs recently I got chatting to quite a few younger brides who seem to appreciate the repurpose ethos behind turning your wedding flowers into something completely new. With this in mind I’m now on TikTok….! Its taking me a little while to work out my new flowery products for my TikTok shop but I’ll be posting soon on there once my new products are up and running

First wedding show of 2024 at Epsom racecourse

This weekend I attended my very first wedding show at Epsom race course with Celebrated Affairs. We had a lovely day chatting to brides, future husbands and their families who came along. Check out this video from the day. Lovely to meet so many other wedding suppliers too. There are some very talented people in the wedding industry!

Last pressed flower pictures of 2023

My final pressed flower pictures are all finished made from brides’ wedding bouquets. A lovely variety of autumnal colours to work with

Lots of lovely Wedding bouquet commissions

I have 6 wedding bouquets in the press at the moment. It’s always lovely to work on a client’s special flowers and to create a bespoke artwork for them made from their wedding flowers. Often extra details can be included into the picture. Recently I made a picture for a client where I was asked to include a napkin from the wedding breakfast. If you would like your wedding bouquet preserved and hand pressed and also want some other details include just contact hello@flowerpressstudios.com with a picture of the flowers in there current condition and any other items you would like included. Here’s an example of the one recently made

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Working from home in the garden

Such a lovely day working uploading new images of new pressed flower artworks to the website and to https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Flowerpressstudios. I now work from my home studio based near Coulsdon, Surrey making pressed flower art. Today the sun is shining though so has been lovely working outside in the garden surrounded by the bees #savethebees #plantflowers #modernflowerpressing #flowerpress #flowerpressing #driedflowers #weddingbouquetpreservation

Pressing flowers and holding onto memories

I’ve been working on a lot of new pressed flower pictures this week. They will be ready on my Etsy site and this website shortly. A lot have been inspired by the fragrant lavender I grew in my garden last year. Such a calming and restorative flower with so many uses.
Pressing flowers is such a lovely memento. I recently read about a lady who has kept the flowers Elton John gave her many years ago which she is finally selling along with lots of her other memorabilia. Just goes to show by pressing a flower you are holding onto a memory https://hansonsauctioneers.co.uk/elton-john-superfan-to-part-with-flowers-he-gave-her-when-she-was-sweet-16-in-1976

I’m privileged to be trusted with people’s special flowers and always love seeing the look on their face when I give them their final pressed flower artwork whether this is from their wedding bouquet or from any other flowers that have a significant meaning to them.

How to preserve your wedding bouquet after the big day

Here at Flower Press Studios I love preserving wedding bouquets after the big day. It is always a privilege to work with the bride’s wedding flowers and make them into pressed flower art. The first step is to email a photo of the bridal bouquet to me at hello@flowerpressstudios.com. Prices begin at £150 for a 10 x 12 inch framed artwork.

Care and attention is taken with each flower to preserve it. Flowers are pressed between fine blotting paper and checked every few days. I have learnt over the years to keep a close eye on the flowers. Often changing the paper or the position of the flowers to keep them in optimum condition. Some colour flowers press better than others so I use the best preserved flowers to create the final bespoke artwork. I often feature the commissions on my instagram at www.instagram.com/flowerpressstudios

Yes you can press the flowers yourself but I know from experience you can get mixed results. At Flower Press Studios I can recolour flowers that may have faded and understand from 5 years experience how to preserve them for optimal results.

Here's a bit about me…

It’s a new year so I thought I’d start 2023 introducing myself. My name is Vanessa and I’m the Creative Director at Flower Press Studios. I started Flower Press Studios in 2017 as a way of preserving some of the flowers that I grow in my garden. I began making pictures and cards that I sold on Etsy and through my website. Gradually word spread and I started to be featured in the press ( House Beautiful, Psychologies and the Flower Patch amongst others ) gradually my ‘Side hustle” became more of a main hustle!
My background is in graphic design as an Art Director and Designer working for a variety of clients. These include Brides, Red, New Woman, Kintsugi and You magazine to name a few. Now however I increasingly love working for myself and am looking forward to developing Flower Press Studios much more this year. (Keep an eye out for my new range of bespoke wedding stationary featuring pressed flowers).
As Flower Press Studios has expanded, I began accepting commissions to press special flowers. It’s always an honour to be trusted to make a picture from flowers that people hold dear. From wedding bouquets to funeral flowers to single flowers picked as a present from a client to his girlfriend I have pressed them all and made them into bespoke art for my clients. Just contact me to discuss.

First wedding bouquet commission completed of 2023

Was lovely to work on this beautiful wedding bouquet artwork commission. Such a variety of colours and flowers and foliage. Am very pleased with how it turned out. Check out this reel on my instagram to see the bouquet go from flowers to artwork. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnUd2kwtZR-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.

Contact me at hello@flowerpressstudios.com if you would like your flowers preserved in a unique and bespoke way

Wedding bouquet illustrations drawn from your wedding bouquet pictures or videos

I’ve recently started offering bespoke illustrations of brides wedding bouquets drawn from pictures supplied by the couple or their relatives. Was so pleased to work on this illustration drawn from a relative’s photos of the day. A beautiful bouquet featured in a lovely winter wedding in the Snow Basin Ski Resort, Utah https://www.snowbasin.com. I was able to see the bouquet in detail from the couple’s wedding video and I hope it was a lovely anniversary gift surprise for the happy couple. It’s such an honour to play a part in a couple’s special day in this way. This illustration was supplied as a digital hi resolution file that that was then printed on high quality paper and framed. I can also sort the printing myself. Just contact me to discuss options

FEATURED BY WOMANS WEEKLY MAGAZINE

This week I was featured by Woman’s weekly magazine talking about “My age is my super power”. Since turning 50 I have concentrated more on my flower pressing business here at Flower Press Studios and it was lovely to feature in such a women’s classic magazine. https://www.womansweekly.com.As well as talking about @flowerpressstudios I also talked about my commercial illustration work at @vanessagdraws

Details of some recent pressed flower commissions

It’s always a pleasure to work on people’s special flowers. In addition to selling my own contemporary artworks made from pressed flowers which I sell on here and on my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/flowerpressstudios I love to be commissioned and to create a picture for people to keep as a memento of their wedding or as a memory of a loved one.

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Two bespoke artworks made from a clients special flowers

Funeral flowers pressed

It’s always a privilege when a client brings their special flowers to me to press. A lot of care and attention is put into floral arrangements for important occasions by florists and they are important as a way to remember someone. Rather than disposing of such beautiful flowers its so nice to be able to press these special flowers into a keepsake for clients to keep.

Personalised wedding bouquet illustrations

I sometimes have requests to press a whole wedding bouquet and arrange the whole flowers back into place as a whole bouquet. However my style of modern flower pressing doesn’t really lend itself to this style of arrangement. I prefer to use single petals and flowers and leaves arranging them in a grid formation to create a more contemporary look as in the examples on here and on my instagram page. www.instagram.com/flowerpressstudios.

Also sometimes prospective clients are worried their special flowers are too wilted/past their best for flower pressing…If this is the case, I now have a brand new option for you!

I now have started to offer a brand new service where I can create bespoke personalised illustrations of your special flowers. I studied graphic design and illustration over 25 years ago at Norwich school of art and got side tracked working as a magazine art director and designer so it’s great to return to my first love of illustration again. My illustration style is quite modern and graphic and makes a change from the watercolour style of many bouquet illustrators. . Read more about my return to drawing during lockdown in this Observer/Guardian interview https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/05/self-and-wellbeing-lockdown-gave-charlotte-northedge-a-chance-to-write-a-new-novel

Here are a few pictures of my ‘mid-century modern’ inspired style of illustrating. These can be drawn from pictures of your bouquets and fully customised and personalised. The illustration can be printed and framed or supplied as a digital file for you to do as you wish. Perfect as a thank you card for your guests or as a memento of your special day. Also great as an anniversary present for the happy couple. Contact me to find out more.

https://www.flowerpressstudios.com/contact

More wedding bouquet artworks

Now that weddings have restarted its lovely to work on preserving brides wedding bouquets again. I love seeing something that otherwise would be discarded made into a bespoke artwork.

Here’s a recent work in progress

#weddingbouquet #preservebouquet #weddingbouquets #surreyartist #pressedflowerart #pressedflowerartist

Your special flowers

It’s been lovely since lockdown ended to work on some more commissioned artworks. Recently I’ve made a picture for a bride’s mother from the bridal bouquet and a larger picture for a bride. So lovely to preserve flowers in this way and to make something from flowers that would otherwise be thrown away

Lockdown family illustrations

I like a lot of people has had to pivot during the uk lockdown.As weddings were cancelled I have had to change (temporarily!) from creating bespoke pictures made from wedding bouquets and have pivoted to a new illustration style. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic I began illustrating my life as a positive way to record these strange times. I’ve had lots of positive feedback and been featured in :

The Daily Mirror https://www.instagram.com/p/B-65cYmpFY3/

Euro News Living: https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/05/07/employees-tell-us-what-their-carefully-orchestrated-zoom-set-ups-say-about-them

and Psychologies magazine https://www.instagram.com/p/B_M-vHmJ7y9/ so far…

Now the good news! I’ve now started to take commissions to illustrate your family’s life during lockdown.

How does it work?: To start with, send me some recent pictures of your family and then tell me some things you have been up to during the lockdown. What have you done?, where have you been?, done anything new?, anything funny? I will then create a bespoke personalised illustration of your family. I’ll supply you a hires jpg for you to have printed at the size you require then you can frame it as a record of these times. I normally supply the artwork as a 10x8 inch jpg but just let me know and I can supply at any size you require)

Check out my lockdown family style of illustration at www.instagram.com/lockdownfamily

Preserving your wedding bouquet

Here at Flower Press Studios we love to create pressed flower, bespoke, original artworks from your flower bouquets whether it’s wedding flower bouquets or Valentine’s floral displays. Today I’m working on an artwork created from a single stem red rose given on Valentine’s day 2019. With a recent You Gov survey showing that spending it likely to be up 32% this year on this special day it makes sense that all that money doesn’t go to waste!

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/resources/articles-reports/2020/02/10/2020-valentines-day-spending-expected-increase-32-

Don’t let those beautiful flowers end up in the bin. Bring them to our studios.

Imagine if your fiancé proposes this year what a lovely way to remember the day for years to come.

#reuse #repurpose #recycle #wedding bouquets