A Spotlight on Floral Memory-Making
There’s something truly special about artists who preserve flowers not just for their beauty, but for the stories they hold.
This month, I’m delighted to shine a spotlight on Fields of Pressed Flowers, a floral preservation studio known for its intricate, maximalist arrangements and heartfelt approach to memory‑keeping.
Founded by Lucy, an architect‑turned‑artist based on the edge of the New Forest, Fields of Pressed Flowers has grown from a personal creative outlet into a thriving studio creating keepsakes for brides, families, and flower lovers.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into flower preservation/art.
Hello! I’m Lucy, the floral preservation artist behind Fields of Pressed Flowers. I live on the edge of the New Forest with my husband and two young sons, and I specialise in wedding bouquet preservation, though I also work with memorial flowers.
Before working with flowers full time, I was an Architect and pressing flowers started as my hands-on creative outlet. Like many people, I pressed flowers as a child, but during my Masters Degree I rediscovered my flower press.
However, it wasn’t until after my own wedding in 2019 that I thought about pressing flowers again for more than just ‘fun’. Having been unable to preserve much of my own bouquet, Fields of Pressed Flowers began as a hobby when I started pressing friends wedding bouquets to create keepsakes as wedding gifts and it snowballed from there. As of April 2024 I left my career in architecture to focus fully on preserving floral memories, turning them into intricate piece of art. I started off working solo but I’ve slowly grown my business into a small studio, with several lovely ladies helping me with pressing flowers and admin so I can focus on creating.
I am so lucky to have created hundreds of special pieces of art - some now grace walls as far away as the USA and Hong Kong!
2. What inspires your floral choices and style?
Because I currently primarily work with flowers from brides’ bouquets, I don’t get to choose which blooms come into the studio. Every piece starts with whatever they’ve picked, or their florist has created, and that makes it exciting - I never know what’s arriving next. My style definitely leans towards maximalism, I love filling the frame with detail, slotting each flower into place until it almost forms a pattern. It reminds me a lot of my career in architecture, working out the best layouts, only now, it’s petals and stems coming together into something intricate and balanced.
3. What's your favourite technique or tool when preserving flowers or working with them?
I still love using a traditional flower press. There’s something timeless about the process, but I’ve been experimenting with different papers and absorbent materials to get the best results. Small tweaks can make such a difference to the colour and outcome of the flowers.
4. What do you love most about working with preserved flowers?
It’s the detailed work that I love. Pressing and arranging flowers is such a creative, hands-on process, and it demands real focus - it can almost feel meditative. And beyond the craft itself, there’s the meaning behind it. These aren’t just flowers, they’re part of someone’s wedding day or a way to remember someone special. Being able to turn them into something permanent, something beautiful, feels like such a privilege.
5. Do you have a favourite project or piece you've created- and why?
There are several pieces that stand out, but the real turning point for me was a duo of frames I made for a bride called Becky. She had such a seasonal spring bouquet with really unusual colours of tulips and ranunculus. It pushed me to lean into that intricate, maximalist style I’ve grown into, and I remember finishing them and thinking, yes, this feels like me.
Another firm favourite is another duo I created more recently for a bride called Frances. Funnily enough, her flowers were by the same florist as Becky’s, and again the bouquet had so much character that the final artwork came out beautifully detailed. I truly believe the more interesting the bouquet, the more interesting the art. Those pieces really cemented what I love about this work.
6. What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Start small and give yourself plenty of space to practice. Press flowers you’ve grown yourself, pick some up from a local flower farm or even just buy a bunch to experiment with. You’ll make mistakes, that’s part of the process, but every failure teaches you something and helps you refine your technique - even years into pressing, I’m always learning and tweaking how I press.
The most important thing is to find your own style rather than chasing what everyone else is doing. Keep pressing, keep experimenting, and you’ll start to see patterns in what you naturally create. Over time your results will keep improving, but before you ever work with someone’s wedding flowers, you need to feel confident you’ve pressed to the best of your ability at that stage. That confidence comes from practice, patience and a lot of trial and error.
7. Rapid Fire Round:
Favourite flower to work with?
There are too many to choose from, but I love wildflowers and anything I know will press well without too much fuss — daisies, pink astrantia, pansies and ammi.
Morning or night crafter?
With a young family I work when I can, but there is something calming for me working at night when it’s quiet and everyone’s in bed.
Tea or coffee while pressing?
Always tea, an Earl Grey… and usually microwaved at least once!
