no color correction, thanks

I fell in love with dried flowers when my mom hung up the yellow roses she got from my father. The way they transformed mesmerized me. The why behind saving them filled up my little heart. She always saved the best ones, changing them out throughout the years as older ones faded more or slowly crumbled—and all she did was keep them in a vase.

In my early 20s, I ended up working for a florist and wedding planner, being exposed to flowers I’d never seen before. At the end of one my shifts, as I was shoving flowers into a giant trash bag, I asked, “Can I take some of these home?”

I wanted to see how a rannuculus dried. I wanted to see how the blue of the delphiniums dried. For years, I dried these flowers and decorated my home with them, watching them as they faded and slowly crumbled. It was in 2017 when I started to make art with the dried flowers. I’d take them apart and create line art of women’s bodies with them. I’d arrange them into designs and adhere them to thrifted frames. I collected long stems to stick into wreaths. And I never did anything with it. Just admired them as they changed, faded, crumbled.

When I started Golden Preserved, I knew I wanted to set myself apart from other preservationists. I experimented with drying methods: the microwave, the oven, simply hanging them upside down, pressing them, and then I found silica. Silica felt like magic, it helps with color retention, but all flowers change once they are dried. And I like that.

I love that toffee roses turn purple. I love that white roses go cream. That the pale pinks can dry darker. That red roses go almost black. I don’t want to freeze time when I am working with your flowers. I want to show you what they can become.

IN MY OPINION, color correction just looks fake—even with the artists out there that are REALLY good. And that’s not something I want to bring into my business. I love the fact that this art changes over time, that your flowers take on a second life, and that it ages alongside you.

There is too much focus on perfection, on freezing time, and that’s not how I operate. Does that mean I don’t care about what your flowers look like? No, it means I find beauty in the change.

And if you choose me as your artist, then you find beauty in the change, too.