Flowers Between the Pages
Flowers are often seen as ephemeral. They bloom for a short time and then quickly fade away.
You may say that this is simply part of their charm — flowers are beautiful because they don’t last.
But we can actually slow down the whole process a little. We can't stop it, just… gently interrupt it.
That’s where pressed flowers come in.
I’ve been pressing flowers for years and still find it somewhat magical that something so delicate can survive simply by being tucked away between book pages.
It’s such a simple process. No fancy equipment. Just flowers, patience, and the kind of books that found their ultimate purpose as giant paperweights. I have many of them.
I love how unpredictable the results can be. Some flowers keep their colours beautifully, while others fade into soft vintage tones. Some come out looking wonderfully strange — twisted stems, crinkled petals, odd little imperfections — and somehow those are often the most interesting ones.
I also like that pressed flowers don’t try too hard to stay perfect. They become more fragile-looking. But somehow that makes them even more beautiful. A little less polished, a little more interesting.
Over the years, pressed flowers have found their way into my artwork, especially in my mixed media and collage pieces. I love combining them with watercolor, sea glass, found objects, and all the other bits and pieces I seem incapable of throwing away. They bring a natural texture and extra dimensions
that feel difficult to recreate in any other way.
As winter begins in Australia, it feels like the perfect season to revisit collected treasures. I’ve been opening books and rediscovering flowers I pressed during the summer and autumn months. And of course, immediately giving them a second life in my artwork.
If you’d like to see how I use pressed flowers, you can find them on my website in my new card collection and in the Sea Glass and Tenderness collections. I also share behind-the-scenes glimpses of the creative process on my YouTube and Instagram pages. And who knows, it might even inspire you to start pressing a few flowers on your own.
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