Before deciding to preserve your special flowers, you should know what will happen! 

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We dry flowers using a combination of pressing them, and silica sand (gel). Which method we use is dependent on the pieces you have chosen, and also the flowers. 

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There's a few really important things that you need to know. 

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1. Not all flowers dry equal. 

The success of drying flowers is dependent on the type of flower, how old it is, what colour it is, whether it's been artificially coloured, and most importantly (and we are only partially joking), whether the flower feels like drying or not that day!! 

Not all foliage can be dried. Eucalyptus, ferns etc dry beautifully but many leaves do not. 

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2. Flowers change colour during drying. 

White roses tend to turn a beautiful vintage sepia tone. 

White lisianthus can dry with a green tint

Hydrangea petals, particularly purples and blues, can dry to a different tone. Blues can darken, purples can lighten to a blue tone. 

Red and pink roses dry darker than when fresh, Deep red roses dry to the most incredible deep violet, almost black tone. 

Purples (in most flowers) tend to dry to a more faded colour than when fresh. 
 

3. Flowers can change colour again when covered in resin. 

Resin is a chemical and creates an exothermic reaction. It heats when curing. This can have an affect on your flowers. The more delicate the bloom, the more likely you are to notice this reaction. It can cause colour loss, a deepening of colour, bruising to appear (see next note) and sometimes transparent spots. I know, it reads like an episode of House, but you should be prepared! 

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4. Bruising and transparent spots

Both of these are only visible when we pour the resin. Bruising on a flower is caused by it being crushed, or by oils from human skin being transferred to the flower. Your bloom has gone through the growing, cutting, transporting, bouquet-making process before it gets to you - there's a huge number of chances for it to be bruised. And all of that is before your special day, where you'll be hugging people, giving your bouquet to your bridesmaid, leaving it on a table and dancing! 

In my opinion, bruising should be seen as a memory, not a blemish.

 

5. Not everything can be pressed

About 70% of our clients want some kind of pressed item - a tray, coasters, a frame, bookmarks. Equally, about 70% of flowers can be pressed to some extent (or at least enough to make those items). Unfortunately, flowers such as dahlia's, calla lilies, proteas, billy buttons and most 'bulky' flowers just don't press. In this case, we can dry them whole for use in a block or a table, but we can't press them. If your bouquet has these elements, we will work with you to find the perfect piece for you. ​

As you'll see from our gallery, we press our flowers very lightly - to preserve as much of the structure of the flower as we can. Our style is not the fully pressed, deconstructed petals style - there are incredible artists out there that can create that style for you - contact us for our recommendation. 

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