Join Nancy Leonard and Bonnie Hay for a flower pressing workshop. The workshop will be in two parts: pressing and art/arranging. Part 1 will be on June 24 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. while Part 2 is the afternoon of Sunday, August 6, from 1-4 p.m. Sign-up includes participation in both Part 1 and Part 2.

Image via MSN.com. Helen Cathcart.

“The method of pressing flowers hasn’t changed much from what botanist Joseph Banks described in 1770, when leaving instructions for his team: ‘They are to be put between the leaves of a paper book, two leaves of which should be left between each plant…. The books are then to be filed upon each other.’

What is different now is how people display them. ‘When we started pressing flowers they were still viewed as something you’d expect in a dusty Victorian herbarium,’ Richardson admits. Now you’re more likely to find pressed flowers elegantly placed on a napkin at a dinner party or tucked beneath the ribbon of a present. While Edwardian ladies would create fantastical bouquets, a millennial approach is more authentic: JamJar’s aesthetic is about capturing beauty as if the flowers were still in the meadow – a dozen fritillaries together or a clutch of chocolate cosmos.”

- Excerpt from “The Forgotten Art of Flower Pressing,” Alice Vincent.

Register for the workshop by emailing director@gratiotlakeconservancy.org. Any questions should be directed to the email as well.