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My love of flowers and gardening was introduced to me as a young girl by my mother, who had a beautiful rock garden in our backyard in Alabama. My earliest memory of pressing flowers was ironing fall leaves between two sheets of wax paper. In the mid-'90s, I bought presses and pressed flowers with our children. Fast forward to the present day, and my pressing continued with teaching a class at the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society in the summer of 2020. I dove into pressing flowers for this class and was hooked!
Pressing flowers is a simple art form traced back to ancient Egypt. In the 1500s, Oshibana, the art of pressing flowers to form decorative images, was the official start. Samurai were said to have created oshibana as one of their disciplines to promote patience, harmony with nature, and powers of concentration. As botanists in Europe began systematically collecting and preserving specimens, art forms with pressed plant materials developed, particularly during the Victorian era became fashionable in Victorian England once trade with the Japanese people increased. Elisabeth Bradford, a Duxbury amateur botanist, pressed flowers in 1836 to study botany, and her collection has been restored at the Duxbury Library archives. Jerusha Bradford Weston, married to Ezra "King Caesar" Weston, planted tiny spring bulbs of iris reticulata that Ezra brought to Duxbury from Turkey. I have pressed petite spring flowers from the King Caesar House grounds, and it makes me wonder- "could these be Jerusha's bulbs? "
My modern-day pressed flower designs reflect the moment and place where the flowers originated. My thought process and technique used to make a design, physically working with each flower with my hands, carefully preserves the beauty of flowers and leaves and connects me to the natural world.
Ashley is a former Associate of the MFA, Museum of Fine Arts, volunteering as a Floral Designer and Enrichment Chair. She has been a member of the Duxbury Garden Club since 2001 and was former President and past board member of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society. She is currently working on the historic gardens committee. Ashley has been invited to be a juror at the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show.
My collections reflect my love of nature and preserves the beauty of each flower and plant. My creations are timeless and showcase the history of the pressed flower craft, the joy of collecting relevant treasures, and the art design that the viewer can enjoy.
As Hans Christian Andersen said, "just living is not enough; one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
Pressing flowers is a simple art form traced back to ancient Egypt. In the 1500s, Oshibana, the art of pressing flowers to form decorative images, was the official start. Samurai were said to have created oshibana as one of their disciplines to promote patience, harmony with nature, and powers of concentration. As botanists in Europe began systematically collecting and preserving specimens, art forms with pressed plant materials developed, particularly during the Victorian era became fashionable in Victorian England once trade with the Japanese people increased. Elisabeth Bradford, a Duxbury amateur botanist, pressed flowers in 1836 to study botany, and her collection has been restored at the Duxbury Library archives. Jerusha Bradford Weston, married to Ezra "King Caesar" Weston, planted tiny spring bulbs of iris reticulata that Ezra brought to Duxbury from Turkey. I have pressed petite spring flowers from the King Caesar House grounds, and it makes me wonder- "could these be Jerusha's bulbs? "
My modern-day pressed flower designs reflect the moment and place where the flowers originated. My thought process and technique used to make a design, physically working with each flower with my hands, carefully preserves the beauty of flowers and leaves and connects me to the natural world.
Ashley is a former Associate of the MFA, Museum of Fine Arts, volunteering as a Floral Designer and Enrichment Chair. She has been a member of the Duxbury Garden Club since 2001 and was former President and past board member of the Duxbury Rural & Historical Society. She is currently working on the historic gardens committee. Ashley has been invited to be a juror at the 2024 Philadelphia Flower Show.
My collections reflect my love of nature and preserves the beauty of each flower and plant. My creations are timeless and showcase the history of the pressed flower craft, the joy of collecting relevant treasures, and the art design that the viewer can enjoy.
As Hans Christian Andersen said, "just living is not enough; one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
