In the beginning...

Years ago, with 3 little ones under the age of 4, I saw two T.V. programs that nudged me onto a new path.

While drowning in a sea of tippy cups and toddler toys, I saw Lynette Jennings on the Discovery Channel make paper. Amazing! It looked so easy. And cheap! All I needed was a kitchen blender, and some type of frame with a screen. I was on it.

Then, I saw Rebecca, from a show called “Rebecca’s Garden” press flowers with some type of microwave flower press. The flowers were stunning. Maybe I could put them on handmade paper…

So, I began with an improvised paper making kit, and a Microfleur Flower Press and those are still the primary tools I use. And here I am today, blessed with a small but hopefully growing pressed flower/botanical art business that started with a little inspiration lots of Divine Intervention, and a few other blessings along the way.

One of the first blessings was Anne Post of Preserved Gardens. Soon after I began making pressed flower cards, I came across her amazing pressed flower site and discovered that she had a free Pressed Flower Store, where she graciously allowed pressed flower artists show and offer their work directly to the customer right on her website. After I sold a number of cards via her site, I gingerly ventured into web retailing on my own. I created my own site with Yahoo’s Sitebuilder, and eventually purchased my own domain, http://www.elizabeths-flowers.com/

By the way, if you ever need to know ANYTHING about pressed flowers, check out Preserved Gardens. That has been my primary pressed flower information resource through the years, and I still refer to it every now and then. Anne also has comprehensive reviews on pressed flower books on her site you may want to check out. Another good resource is the World Wide Pressed Flower Guild. I am not currently a member, but I was at one time, and learned a lot. There is also a pressed flower group on Yahoo that has some fairly good information on pressing flowers in their archives.

This post is getting a bit long, and I have to get a few orders ready to ship. I’ll be back…