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Ep. 67: How to Press Flowers Like a Pro: Featuring Kate Punnett of The August Press
495 Plays3 hours ago
If you’ve ever had more flowers than you know what to do with—or wished you could make a special bouquet last forever—this episode will spark your creativity.
In this conversation, I’m joined by Kate Punnett, founder of The August Press, a professional flower press studio dedicated to turning fresh blooms into timeless art. With over a decade as an organic urban flower grower and sustainable florist, Kate shares her best tips for pressing flowers successfully, from choosing the right blooms to avoiding mold, storing delicate petals, and creating pieces that last.
We talk about:
- The easiest (and trickiest) flowers to press
- How to capture every stage of a bloom’s life cycle in art
- Common mistakes that lead to mold — and how to avoid them
- Sustainable ways to preserve bridal bouquets
- Why pressing flowers is the perfect slow art for our fast-paced world
Whether you’re a flower farmer, gardener, or someone who treasures the beauty of a single bloom, this episode will inspire you to see your flowers in a whole new way.
🌸 Learn more about Kate & The August Press
Website: https://www.theaugustpress.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theaugustpress
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2025/08/15/ep-67-how-to-press-flowers-like-a-pro/
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Transcript
Intro
Welcome and Episode Theme Introduction
00:00:56
Kate Punnett
you.
00:00:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Hi flower friends, and thanks so much for tuning in again today to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. If you've ever found yourself with more flowers than you know what to do with, or you've wished you could hold on to their beauty for just a little bit longer, then today's episode is for you.
Guest Introduction and Sustainability Discussion
00:01:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Today I'm joined by Kate Punnett, founder of the August Press, a professional flower press studio that carries the essence of hope from your garden or flower farm and transforms it into a timeless work of art.
00:01:29
Jennifer Gulizia
With over a decade of experience as an organic urban flower grower and sustainable florist, Kate knows how flowers move, live, and inspire. Her work is all about promoting the slow arts, creating change through beauty, connecting with nature, and celebrating the aliveness of now.
00:01:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Through custom commissions, pressed floral prints, and community workshops, Kate invites us to slow down and reconnect with the joy that flowers bring long after they've left the garden.
00:02:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Before we dive into today's episode, if you've been enjoying this podcast, I'd be so grateful if you could please take a moment to leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps more flower lovers find this show and keeps conversations like this blooming.
00:02:18
Jennifer Gulizia
All right, let's dig into today's episode.
Journey to Flower Pressing
00:02:21
Jennifer Gulizia
Welcome Kate to the Backyard Bouquet podcast.
00:02:25
Kate Punnett
Hi there. Thank you so much for the introduction. It's really great to be here today to chat with you.
00:02:31
Jennifer Gulizia
It's so wonderful to be chatting with you as well. And I just recently learned about you and your business because of a past guest on episode 65, Jenny Jonak Dragonsong Farms.
00:02:44
Jennifer Gulizia
was telling us about how she uses your flower press and how amazing it is. And it was serendipitous because I have been shopping for a flower press for myself to help us do something with some of our excess flowers that we have this summer and to engage my daughter more in the farm.
00:03:01
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm so excited for today's conversation.
00:03:05
Kate Punnett
That's so kind of Jenny. know, I'm in Ottawa, Canada, actually most of my customers, I'd say about 80% of my flower press customers are from the US.
00:03:15
Kate Punnett
So I don't really know sometimes who's buying them and if it's a gardener, if it's a artist, if it's a farmer. So it was really fun to get an email from Jenny saying, oh, take a listen to this clip on the podcast.
00:03:29
Kate Punnett
that's how I met you. So and then you ordered
Art and Technique of Flower Pressing
00:03:31
Kate Punnett
a press too. So that was fantastic.
00:03:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, I think mine think mine's coming this week in the mail. I can't wait to start using it after today's conversation.
00:03:39
Kate Punnett
That's great.
00:03:40
Jennifer Gulizia
kate can you give us a little bit of a background on your story? How did you get into flowers?
00:03:46
Kate Punnett
Well, I was a stay-at-home mom when my kids were young, and I was homeschooling them. And like a lot of women, ah so like since then, I've met a lot of women with a very similar story.
00:03:59
Kate Punnett
didn't really find my artistic self out until I was a mom. So I had this time to devote into a creative pursuit, and I started to grow a lot of flowers slowly. My big vegetable gardens made way for more and more flowers.
00:04:17
Kate Punnett
And i did some floristry training and started to make bouquets and sell them. And then we moved in just down the street. We moved to a little house that was slated for development. The the elderly woman had li passed on and the children We're selling this little yellow house on a nice big lot in the middle of the city. And i approached them and said, hey, I don't want to tear your house down. I actually want to make it my family home and to use the space to grow my my flower business.
00:04:48
Kate Punnett
And so they sold it to us. And I ripped up a lot of the lawn. I called myself an urban flower grower. and I started a sustainable studio and slowly my business grew.
00:04:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you.
00:05:03
Kate Punnett
you know, it was the beginning of the flower movement. The local flower movement was just hitting the capital here and a lot of flower farmers were starting and there was just such a great vibe.
00:05:13
Kate Punnett
So my studio grew and grew to the point where i kind of outgrew it. I needed to slow down. My kids' homeschooling was getting more complicated.
00:05:24
Kate Punnett
i i couldn't really work things out unless I had maybe started a bricks and mortar store or whatnot. And I just decided that it was too fast paced for me.
00:05:35
Kate Punnett
So I quit. I took a year off, a law nice long fall and winter. And then in the spring, the flowers came up and the two brews were dug up and they're sitting in their crates. And i i knew I needed to be with the flowers again. i just needed to find my own way with
Challenges and Process of Flower Pressing
00:05:52
Kate Punnett
them.
00:05:52
Kate Punnett
So I started to press and that led to developing my own line of flower presses and an art business as well.
00:06:01
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. I love that you said you found your own way with flowers because as the local flower movement grows, there's not just one straight path that everyone has to follow.
00:06:15
Jennifer Gulizia
There's so, so many ways that we can utilize and share local flowers and you are really carving a neat niche market with them, with the pressed flowers.
00:06:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Did you have a background in pressing flowers or how did you get into pressing them? How did you decide that that was what you were going to do?
00:06:33
Kate Punnett
I just started to, um you know, a lot of my work when I was working with Fresh Flowers was talking about hope hopefulness and joy. And I encountered a lot of deep discussions with my customers about vase life.
00:06:49
Kate Punnett
And as we know, a lot of us growers and florists and gardeners, when you bring the flowers in, it's hard to say goodbye once they're cut.
00:06:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:06:57
Kate Punnett
And that's a big part of, you know, the flower business is accepting the ephemeral nature of this beauty. And I think the essence of that is what kept me sparked and energized when I worked with flowers. And interestingly enough, that's kind of what I honed my skills into is capturing this essence and this joy and this hopefulness and finding a way to create art with it that wasn't as ephemeral as a fresh flower.
00:07:30
Kate Punnett
And what appealed to me in the practice was that it was an old an old craft and it had a slowness to it that really matched my lifestyle.
00:07:40
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. And so you don't only just press the flowers, you make art with the flowers.
00:07:47
Kate Punnett
Yeah, so I pressed started by pressing. I spent the first year pressing everything from the first daffodils, tulips, to the end of the sunflowers, the last of the dahlias.
00:08:00
Kate Punnett
And I learned how to press every single thing I could, whether it was from my own garden or from this local flower collective, which I'm quite connected to because of my experience being a florist with all these farmers. So yeah,
00:08:15
Kate Punnett
Anyway, so yeah, so i slowly started to make art and creating one of a kind originals. I i make prints now and i go to juried art shows and i show my my work.
00:08:29
Jennifer Gulizia
That's so fun and so fascinating. So you just said you've learned how to press all flowers. Is there any flower that you have not been successful pressing?
00:08:39
Kate Punnett
Yes, definitely. so this is very, flower pressing is very, very nuanced. I think the appeal of it is... in that there are so many variables. And if you're someone like me, and I find a lot of flower presses are the same, we like to solve problems.
00:08:58
Kate Punnett
And, you know, I could say that cosmos are the easiest flower to press, but I would take a cosmo picked at two different times from the same patch, and one will turn out vividly and one won't.
00:09:14
Kate Punnett
So there is so much, so many variables within that from And some has hasn't really even been research from when flowers have been pollinated, what time they've been picked at, how they've grown, if they've had too much sun, how they've been pressed, how they've been stored.
00:09:30
Kate Punnett
So, you know, that's the easy spectrum. So going from the hard spectrum, I would say most flowers that are the hardest to press for me is honestly a commission.
00:09:40
Kate Punnett
where I have a bride who has flown in flower that's not peak fresh and is extra moist. These are like an orchid or something like that.
00:09:51
Kate Punnett
are classic wedding flowers because they are kept so well out of water. have a moistness intact, but they're very, very hard to press.
00:10:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, walk us through the process. So you grow the flowers and then you harvest them. is So tell us, is there a certain stage that you're harvesting them at? And I bet that depends a lot on the flower itself, but paint us a picture of what the process looks like to press a flower.
00:10:17
Kate Punnett
Yeah, for sure. So you have your, you know, you have your casual roadside, you know, flowers that you can press and cosmos that you can pick, like my example always, because they're such an ephemeral, easy, easy to grow and to press flower.
00:10:31
Kate Punnett
But for me, what I'm trying to do is press the garden. And if you're pressing a garden, then you're pressing all stages flower. of growth So what i love to do with my own flowers that I grow and from other farmers' flowers is to get them at bud stage, full bloom stage.
00:10:51
Kate Punnett
I love the stage when they die and to press them in all those elements. And a lot of my art shows the life cycle of each flower. And I think that's what, you know, makes my work stand out a little bit in in this field, I guess.
00:11:07
Kate Punnett
I don't know if that's true, but... I think that I've heard that, that my my work seems so alive. And I think the aliveness is because I'm showing the different stages. When you grow like my recent poppy print, I grew my poppies from seed.
00:11:20
Kate Punnett
I collected the poppies every single day for a month and I pressed them every single day. And then I made a big piece of art. So you see them, you know, from the beginning to the end. So what I do is I pick flowers at all those stages and then there's a whole bunch of different ways that you can press a flower.
00:11:38
Kate Punnett
So I built traditional presses and that's a big part of my business is selling my presses. And it can be quite simple. you use chipboard,
Storage and Uses of Pressed Flowers
00:11:48
Kate Punnett
You use paper.
00:11:49
Kate Punnett
And for me, I love using industrial felt and you layer your flowers all up in multiple, multiple layers. And then you press them. You stand on your press. Hopefully you have a press that's strong enough that you can stand on to do a high pressure pressing.
00:12:05
Kate Punnett
And then every day you tighten that press and then the magic happens every single time you open a press. And i mean, I've opened so many presses now for the past four or five years and it never,
00:12:18
Kate Punnett
It never goes away, the excitement. Did it work? You know, what could I do different? Is there mold? Or just sometimes you get that perfect flower you know you've captured it at peak beauty.
00:12:32
Kate Punnett
And that's just that's just the most magical feeling.
00:12:36
Jennifer Gulizia
So I have not been successful at pressing flowers in the past, but I've had cheap presses. So I'm very excited to use yours. I've had like little square ones. My daughter, a few years ago, gave me one for Christmas and you could fit a few flowers in it at a time.
00:12:45
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:12:50
Jennifer Gulizia
And most of the time, mine would get moldy. What causes them to get moldy in the press?
00:12:53
Kate Punnett
Right.
00:12:55
Kate Punnett
Well, layers is the big, well, actually I would start with where they're grown. So obviously you've been pressing very fresh flowers. I get a lot of more a lot more mold when the flowers have been flown in or treated with a kind of pesticide or any kind of treatment to stay fresh longer.
00:13:13
Kate Punnett
That gets in the way of just pure pressing. Secondly, it's the layers. What kind of layers have you used? Have have they been thick enough? to capture, to take out the moisture of that flower.
00:13:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:13:25
Kate Punnett
So every flower has a different moisture level. So pom-pom dahlias are nearly impossible to press whole. You need to deconstruct them. Is this the type of, is do you have a big rose? Do you need to deconstruct all the petals in the middle and then reconstruct it after? so Just like a florist or in your in your farm, you get to know almost like the conditioning of a flower. You get to know what every flower needs to shine.
00:13:53
Kate Punnett
But the press does make a difference, the layers. And then for me, I'm a high pressure presser. It's like a funny thing to say, but there's a lot of flower pressers right now.
00:14:02
Kate Punnett
i mean, at least in my feed on Instagram, because that's what, that's all the people I watch and a lot of people don't use high pressure, but for me, I step on my presses.
00:14:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:14:13
Kate Punnett
It's one of the reasons I is designed my own strong presses that I could step on and I step on them every day and I constantly tighten my, my tightening knobs and so that it basically gets down to as tight as it can be.
00:14:26
Kate Punnett
So that's another problem if you're not doing that. And there's also crowding. When you picked it, it's like, you know, I would never pick a flower when there's dew on it, things like that.
00:14:37
Jennifer Gulizia
So they need to be fairly dry when you're pressing them.
00:14:41
Kate Punnett
Yeah, like my poppies, for an example, I would have to wait, you know, I couldn't pick them right away. Like I would have picked them right away in the morning for bouquets. Now I'm going to wait for the heat to get all the moisture off of them, but then before they get kind of wilty, right? So there's this, there's also a magic time to press for pressing.
00:14:59
Kate Punnett
And so it's either in the evening or mid morning.
00:15:03
Jennifer Gulizia
OK, and that's when you put them into the press, or that's when you harvest them.
00:15:06
Kate Punnett
Yeah, so, well, I harvest them most often. i will press them right away. So recently I've done two commissions, one at a big organic farm nearby, and I brought my press with me because I knew i was also pressing her vegetables and some some flowers.
00:15:23
Kate Punnett
And I knew but ah the the quickest pressing is always the most successful. And when I talk about success, it's not just so no molds, because that's the first step. Of course, we don't want molds because how many people have mold and then just stop pressing.
00:15:38
Kate Punnett
I'm talking about capturing the essence of the energy of the flower. And that's something that you just know. you we all know what it feels like to hold a locally grown, beautiful bouquet in our hands and how the wedding photos look different and the energy of that spirit of that looks different.
00:15:56
Kate Punnett
And When you press a flower and you're able to really capture the aliveness of it, it's the same feeling that you get.
00:16:06
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. You just said you also pressed vegetables. What kind of vegetables are you pressing?
00:16:14
Kate Punnett
Yeah, well, she she's a good friend of mine has a large, pretty large farm and she grows mostly veggies and just a few flowers. So I'm doing like she just picked me every little thing she could, little carrots and then the carrot tops, little eggplants, little radishes.
00:16:30
Kate Punnett
So we're going to see how it goes because I had my knife and my cutting board and everything's done really thin.
00:16:31
Jennifer Gulizia
oh my gosh.
00:16:36
Kate Punnett
So it's a big experiment for me to see how that will go.
00:16:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my goodness. So you just did that recently.
00:16:42
Kate Punnett
Yeah, I just did that. So i kind of tucked that away for the winter, which is another wonderful part about flower pressing. And as an add on to a business you already have for us, the winters are long.
00:16:54
Kate Punnett
The summers are like, boom, boom, boom, get your flowers, whatever that is. And for me, I'm just filling my presses. And then in the winter, this is when I have the most amount of time to make my art, prepare for markets.
00:17:07
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:17:10
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. So once you put the flowers or vegetables into your flower press, what, how long is the process before you open it back up?
00:17:18
Kate Punnett
Yeah, so it it's really different for each flower, like a pansy. You know, I had these really beautiful pansies that I bought that someone that I know sells them to chefs, but I bought them for a print for the spring. And with the way I press them, which is chipboard, computer paper, basically just plain paper.
00:17:40
Kate Punnett
and a bit of felt in a press, I was able to get them in two weeks. So I was able to make a print, you know, it was my first spring print.
00:17:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:17:48
Kate Punnett
So I pressed them two weeks and then made a print out of it. And then I was able to create multiple limited edition prints. And then I went to a market and I sold them.
Pressing Bridal Bouquets and Sustainability
00:17:59
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that's so fascinating. So do you have to use multiple flower presses to continue going?
00:18:04
Kate Punnett
Yes.
00:18:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:18:06
Kate Punnett
Yes, I have...
00:18:06
Jennifer Gulizia
How many presses?
00:18:08
Kate Punnett
Right now I probably have about 10 presses filled.
00:18:12
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow.
00:18:12
Kate Punnett
I've also designed a high pressure, two high pressure presses where I've taken a scissor jack press that can press up to two pounds, sorry, two tons.
00:18:23
Kate Punnett
And I've fixed that to metal plates.
00:18:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Whoa. whoa
00:18:27
Kate Punnett
So i've I've kind of got, I'm very, I'm very interested in evolving flower pressing and, you know Just to back up about techniques, there are a lot of, when you ask me about a hard-to-press flower, something like an orchid that has been flown in that's really tough to press.
00:18:46
Kate Punnett
If you talk to flower pressers, everyone has a way to do it. A classic way is for using the like microwave press. Another way is to use silica in addition to a traditional press. So people will share secrets like, oh, I...
00:19:01
Kate Punnett
microwave for 30 seconds, then I put in it, you know how it goes, right? We have all these things we try to learn and best practices we develop, but I just want to use pressure.
00:19:11
Kate Punnett
I don't know why I'm so into it, but I just really just want to use pressure. So I developed these higher pressure presses for things like sunflowers, dahlias, peonies, to try to really get them as flat as I can.
00:19:26
Kate Punnett
So I have two of those filled and I have about 10 presses filled right now.
00:19:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Wow. Okay. You just mentioned using a microwave. All of this is new to me. I mean, I grow flowers, I make arrangements, I wholesale my flowers. So the dried flower world, especially the pressed is foreign.
00:19:45
Jennifer Gulizia
What do you mean you microwave them? Do you microwave yours before pressing them?
00:19:49
Kate Punnett
No, there is actually a microwave press that's pretty popular. it's It's been around for a long, long time. i actually speak at horticulture meetings often, and a lot of the seniors have these microwave presses from years and years ago. I guess they must have been popular at a certain time.
00:20:09
Kate Punnett
And it's just a press that you can put in the microwave and use it you you zap the you zap the flower and it speeds up drying.
00:20:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my goodness.
00:20:18
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:20:20
Jennifer Gulizia
I haven't had a microwave in 15 years. And when we sold our farm.
00:20:23
Kate Punnett
I know I had to from a neighbor and I tried it for a little bit. It just wasn't for me. But I know a lot of pressers use that as a technique.
00:20:34
Jennifer Gulizia
That's so fascinating.
00:20:37
Kate Punnett
it's just the smell of cooking flowers in a microwave is very distinct I have to say that yeah it's a it's odd no it's it's actually it's part of the I very uh sense I have a like my I'm very sensory oriented and the smell was one of the things that bothered me the most actually about it
00:20:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Does it smell good? Like, does it smell like walking into a floral shop? Okay. Okay,
00:20:57
Kate Punnett
Yeah, it felt like I was really...
00:20:58
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm very sensitive to smells.
00:21:00
Kate Punnett
Yeah, just like it's it's an interesting thing, right? Because we're pressing flowers and we have all these words. In some ways, you're killing the flower. you know some ways, in some ways, you have to look at it.
00:21:12
Kate Punnett
You could say,
00:21:13
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:21:14
Kate Punnett
you know, some days when I'm overwhelmed, I'm like, why am I growing this just to kill it? You know, like, what am I doing here? But it's not that, right? Of course, it's, it's capturing their essence, it's holding on to their energy. And for me, what appeals to me the most is slow art and the act of pressing. So I really just stuck to that.
Advice for Beginners and Personal Philosophy
00:21:36
Kate Punnett
And I think that a commitment to that, actually, even though I've sometimes wondered, oh, should I try the microwave press again, you know, when I get a tough to press flour Or should I try the silica? But the commitment for me is what helped me grow the press business, because I think if I hadn't have committed so strongly to to just doing it the old fashioned way, I wouldn't have come up with a press that was so effective and that other people wanted to get their hands on.
00:22:05
Jennifer Gulizia
That's great. Okay, I want to go back to, you mentioned dahlias, and I think you said sunflowers and peonies. You mentioned some of the bigger flowers you have to deconstruct. Can you explain what do you mean?
00:22:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you literally taking out the florets or the petals, or how are you doing that?
00:22:21
Kate Punnett
Yeah. Yeah, you are literally taking... So it's also... i also like to say there's kind of two things that I do with a bigger flower. I'll either debulk it or I will deconstruct it.
00:22:35
Kate Punnett
So deconstructing is taking ranunculus, and these this is a list of of you know things that most people will deconstruct, pressers. Ranunculus, dahlias, peonies, roses, something with multiple level layers of petals, right?
00:22:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:22:51
Kate Punnett
So by deconstruct, taking all the petals out, pressing them separately, Pressing the middles, maybe some stems if you want to have it shown with a stem your art or or whatever you're creating.
00:23:05
Kate Punnett
That is... That is the best way to do it because you cannot get such, you won't get such a vivid press if you have all these kind of layers just soaked into each other.
00:23:18
Kate Punnett
The issue with that, I would say from my own eye and my own work is that when you reconstruct all of those flowers, its it can be kind of hard to differentiate what the original flower was.
00:23:32
Kate Punnett
Because part of the appeal of a fresh ranunculus is the the luxurious like layers, right?
00:23:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:23:40
Kate Punnett
Other than the, is it the butterfly ranunculus that it has a more distinct middle? Those are wonderful to press, but, you know, it it gets a little tricky to decide like, oh, is
Contact Information and Closing Thoughts
00:23:51
Kate Punnett
that? And I've even been fooled from my my folder of flowers. Like, is this a peony, dahlia?
00:23:58
Kate Punnett
a rose or ranunculus because when you know you lose that. So another way, a way that I've learned to avoid that kind of sameness in reconstruction of these flowers is to debulk them.
00:24:12
Kate Punnett
Where I take the flower and you take off as many layers as you can, but then you press it whole. So in this case, you might take a rose and actually snip it in half with a pair of sharp scissors take as much of the middle out and then press it on its side.
00:24:31
Kate Punnett
And we all know that a rose, what a rose looks like from its side, right?
00:24:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh. Mm-hmm.
00:24:35
Kate Punnett
This is, we don't all see, we're not all looking at these flowers from above.
00:24:36
Jennifer Gulizia
for
00:24:42
Kate Punnett
Right. We're not. This isn't, you know, unless it's unless we're an insect above a garden or an aerial view or ah holding a bouquet a certain way. We're seeing the rose from its side. We're seeing the ranunculus with that kind of heavy headed droop that they sometimes do because they're just so luxurious. Right.
00:25:00
Kate Punnett
So by debulking a flower, just taking your snips and just go into the flower, just start cutting into them. holding it up and thinking, how do I see this flower? What is the expression of of what this flower is?
00:25:16
Kate Punnett
And how do I press that? And that is you know similar to the instinct you get when making a bouquet. you know It's the same type of thing and not being afraid to wreck a few and just to try it out. And that's been the most success I've had in my pressing is to really just honor each flower for what it is.
00:25:34
Kate Punnett
And instead of tearing everything apart and spending the time to put them back, I'm dealing with the whole kind of the entire time.
00:25:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you for explaining that. Okay, so once you have pressed the flowers and they have stayed and they're dry, what do you do next? Do you, because i I imagine they're pretty fragile at that point.
00:25:55
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you, is there a way to store them?
00:25:55
Kate Punnett
Yes.
00:25:57
Jennifer Gulizia
So until you're ready to use them?
00:26:00
Kate Punnett
Yes. So this has, you know, every presser has their own technique for this. i I have a few larger presses that I have made out of plywood that I call kind of like my holding presses.
00:26:11
Kate Punnett
I have them labeled where a lot of my flowers, I will, even though I know they're done, will stay in there. So it's very hot, it's very humid, and something like a pansy or a poppy, let's say, we can imagine how delicate those petals are.
00:26:19
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:26:30
Kate Punnett
Even in the most dried form, when you take those off the paper, they are just ready to be to to take in moisture again. So yeah, they just they they will shrivel like...
00:26:38
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:26:42
Kate Punnett
you know, i have some examples on my table here, but even the pansies that were the most dry are now a little bit shriveled. So for my printmaking purposes, I need things flat. And so I will store them even longer than I think.
00:26:56
Kate Punnett
Certain flowers have to be stored that way. Something like a a nigella, you know, a sunflower, some, some things like that. They'll just be fine stored. And I just use small boxes and, you know, everyone's got their organization system.
00:27:12
Kate Punnett
My husband's an archivist. So he's, he's like, dont you know, taught me how to properly store things with a humid, a small humid box. you know, those things that get in a shoe box or something that take in humidity.
00:27:27
Kate Punnett
And I put those in a box and I just have them all organized. So I'll have them actually organized by color because a lot of my work is color based and then seasons.
00:27:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:27:35
Kate Punnett
So I'll be like spring pink, spring blue, and then I just put them all in the boxes. And then in the winter, i just, you know, when the flowers are gone, they're still there.
00:27:46
Jennifer Gulizia
And can you grab them by your hand? Are you using like tweezers to pick them up? I imagine they're so delicate.
00:27:52
Kate Punnett
Yeah, I use a long handle tweezer. use them. I probably have like 20 around the house because I lose them like I lose my glasses. It's just like I put them down everywhere and I have to buy more.
00:28:04
Kate Punnett
So a long handle tweezer is definitely needed. any type of grease from your hand can wreck a pedal right away. So, yeah.
00:28:13
Jennifer Gulizia
So good not to touch. What about stems? Like if you dry a stem, can you pick up a stem or do you still use the tweezers?
00:28:18
Kate Punnett
I pick up a stem. Yeah, I pick up a stem, but I, i you know, the tools kind of like your snips probably for you.
00:28:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:28:26
Kate Punnett
My tweezers are like another hand to me. So they're just as soon as I'm handling flowers, so i have my tweezers out.
00:28:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, thank you. And so then once you've stored them and you're ready to use them, What are some of the different mediums that you've seen? you and also if you could talk about what mediums you use to put the flowers on.
00:28:46
Kate Punnett
Yeah, so I have seen so many ways of using these. You know, i know a lot of pressed flower artists do resin work, jewelry work in resin.
00:28:57
Kate Punnett
For me, I've been creating prints and have been slowly working with my printer and in in our city here to create a sustainable print that is made of all recyclable agave paper, but is still are archival quality, like high quality artist prints.
00:29:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, wow.
00:29:21
Kate Punnett
So that's really exciting for me because I can actually say from like my new Poppy print that I'll be releasing next month, I can actually say I grew the seed and it went through all this slow, slow process. I created the print and now the the paper, like the actual print itself is sustainable as well.
00:29:41
Kate Punnett
it's it's neat, you know, to think about the sustainability of pressed flowers and how we think of the full circle of things. And, you know, you were saying earlier, it's exciting to create something, not just compost the flowers. And that's, it does add and another notch to the full circle part of flowers to have one of these prints, you know, that was created from locally flower, locally grown flowers from spring in your area.
00:30:07
Kate Punnett
So that's kind of exciting for me. i have a few other mediums that I'm Quietly trying to work on I've made shirts for a Christmas market that were sold out. And yeah, just a lot of little creative ideas that I'm trying to think of how to put these on different mediums.
00:30:24
Jennifer Gulizia
So once you put them onto these other mediums, is there a certain amount of time that they're going to last or is there a way that you finish your art so that they do last for a longer time?
00:30:38
Kate Punnett
Well, I think, you know, if I was listening to this podcast, I'd be thinking two things. First of all, I might be listening because I'd be interested in commissions, especially for bridal bouquets. So that's a big part of this industry is saving bridal bouquets and framing your work and, you know, but having that relationship with the bride and the flowers on that level.
00:30:58
Kate Punnett
That type of work is done. It's not my main business. I mostly do original art and prints. I do accept a couple of commissions here and there.
00:31:07
Kate Punnett
And that type of work needs to be done very carefully. on glass, on colored paper. It needs to be professionally framed, either outsourced to a custom framer some pressers use or at home with your the right kind of tools.
00:31:24
Kate Punnett
And there's a whole conversation around that and how ephemeral that is and you know the quality of the framing and and if there's air in the frame and if how people know if their flowers are good.
00:31:36
Kate Punnett
For my own work, then the main part of what I'm doing is i am trying to always get my my fine art photographer, who is also my printer, who has worked with me for so long.
00:31:49
Kate Punnett
And, you know, this is... What's exciting about being a creative entrepreneur is working with other creatives because often just like the flower farmers that i befriended, you know, 10 years ago when I started this, who I still work with now, these people are often excited to solve problems with you.
00:32:06
Kate Punnett
And my fine art photographer, you know, bringing him this massive poppy print where I'm like, okay, I can I come in now? I just finished it. I need to come in this minute because this might change. As I said before, the moisture is going to go in the pedals are going to start to whizzen.
00:32:22
Kate Punnett
So he's like, come in now. Well, you know, he's got air conditioning. blowing in the studio and the poppies are just flying everywhere, like they're fluttering everywhere, you know, so he's having to handle this and take the picture with them all flat.
00:32:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my gosh.
00:32:35
Kate Punnett
And, you know, so, so yeah, so I get a fine art photographer to do my, to do the work. And fortunately, he's the person I'm working with, and and hopefully for others, if they find this relationship too.
00:32:47
Kate Punnett
has grown with me to be able to capture the essence of what I'm trying to do. And so I will often take the print. He takes the fine art photograph. He calls me back right away. As soon as he's ready, I pick it up and then I will go off and get a custom framed or I'll frame it myself.
00:33:05
Kate Punnett
And then I will sell the original and then I'll sell limited edition prints.
00:33:10
Jennifer Gulizia
So is the original with the actual pressed flowers?
00:33:14
Kate Punnett
Yes.
00:33:14
Jennifer Gulizia
It is. And so how are you putting them onto the surface?
00:33:15
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:33:18
Jennifer Gulizia
Are you gluing them on or is there something to finish them off so that they don't start to decompose?
00:33:24
Kate Punnett
There are some pressers who use a spray. i don't use anything online. There is ah ah conversation around, and I know its it's very big in the bridal industry where you know a larger company, let's say, will have a waiver, will say,
00:33:41
Kate Punnett
you're engaged in this process of art making, this work is still ephemeral, you know, and everyone has a different way to talk about this. And it is, it's funny because I, you know, earlier were talking about how I got into this and it was funny because like, I just want to avoid the conversation about Voslife because it can be, it's it's fantastic and it can be really deep, but it's also really tough for people to say, you are purchasing something that will die.
00:34:09
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:34:09
Kate Punnett
and you're spending money on something that will is going to go away. But for the moment that it's here is its purpose. And that's what you're engaging in. And so it's similar with pressed flower art. you Surprisingly, you have to have this conversation in 2D, right? Where it's like the the flowers do fade and every flower, much like the nuance of the the two cosmos picked at different times, pressing to different qualities,
00:34:37
Kate Punnett
is the fading. And the best thing that I do is I use museum glass. It's very, very expensive. It's like, i don't know, eight times the price of regular glass.
00:34:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:34:49
Kate Punnett
It made the jump of my pricing go up crazy. So I only felt brave enough to start using it in a way when I knew I had an audience like that was ready for to to go kind of up like that with me.
00:35:03
Kate Punnett
But museum glass is, has a UV resistance. And so it does block as much UV as possible by having the glass in front of it. And that's why I like to get my stuff framed right away. I get that glass on.
00:35:16
Kate Punnett
And yeah, I fortunately also have a fantastic framer who's been working with me forever. So he knows you know he's before had to move a flower back into you know back into the spot but i i trust him i know he knows where goes so can also frame yourself but i do not have a big space and framing i do frame some things but larger pieces more ephemeral stuff i just bring it right to my framer and he does that work so yeah so it's uv glass for me
00:35:45
Kate Punnett
there is There are sprays people have played around with. For me, that gets in the way of the energy of the work, so I don't use it.
00:35:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. So how are you making the, your stick to the paper then?
00:35:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Or is it just the glass?
00:35:57
Kate Punnett
Oh, yeah, okay, behind it.
00:35:59
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:35:59
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, I'm sorry.
00:36:00
Kate Punnett
so So, no, that's great. I went on and on about that, so the which I hope is helpful to some people. but the
00:36:05
Jennifer Gulizia
oh absolutely.
00:36:06
Kate Punnett
so The actual, the backboard is something that I'm reconfiguring this summer, actually. i'm just talking about on the Instagram today. I just have been playing around. i used to use thick mattboard or a or colored paper, high-end art paper.
00:36:22
Kate Punnett
Recently, I've been finding a new backboard that I can use paint with that's nice and thin and easy to frame. So then I glue the flowers on using an archival glue.
00:36:34
Kate Punnett
And gluing is a whole other thing because like the reason why my poppies were fluttering in the the fans was because you you can only actually glue the middle, the tiny little middle of the pressed poppy.
00:36:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:36:47
Kate Punnett
Because if you if you were to, or the stem slightly, but anywhere along the petals would show the glue because they're so thin. So you kind of get to know where to glue a flower down over time and how much glue to use, which is always less than you think.
00:37:03
Jennifer Gulizia
Interesting. Thank you for sharing that. I want to go back to the bridal piece because a lot of our listeners are flower farmers who grow flowers for weddings.
00:37:14
Jennifer Gulizia
And I have actually, within the last couple of years, had more and more of my brides. I do a lot of DIY buckets and a la carte weddings where I'll make the wedding bouquet. And I've had brides reach out and they send me these beautiful pictures where they've had the flowers pressed.
00:37:29
Jennifer Gulizia
A few of them, though, have come back to me and said, I need a whole new bouquet to send something fresh. What do we need to know as farmers? what if If a bride has used your flowers, they've gotten married, can they send that several day old bouquet or do they need fresh flowers to send off to be pressed?
00:37:48
Kate Punnett
So fresh flowers always press the best. So for my brides, I have a pretty strict 48 hour window. You can ship it in the mail in that time.
00:38:00
Kate Punnett
I've gotten older flowers that have worked out fine. But as from a grower's perspective with this customers that are looking to do this, what will actually what I've noticed, here's what I've noticed.
00:38:11
Kate Punnett
It's kind of It's popped off. It's a new thing. Right. So I feel like what happens is a lot of for my own audience, let's say, or customers is they find out too late. the The brides find out a little bit too late.
00:38:23
Kate Punnett
Ideally, the pressing would be a conversation if you were the grower and I was the presser and we had a bride, she would tell me you were the grower and I would actually talk to you.
00:38:34
Kate Punnett
I would see what's in the flower bucket or what season. And that would be the ideal to talk to the florist directly, the presser. That's it I know flowers really well. so that'd be a quick conversation for us.
00:38:47
Kate Punnett
And I would already know right away, like, oh, that that bouquet can last a few days or I need that right away. Or i would even say to you, can you slip in some chamomile? Because, you know, or so that's just off the top my head. Can you flip this in? Because it's going to make her her thing better in the end.
00:39:04
Kate Punnett
so I do know that, ah you know, I have also had to go and get flowers from the source for either the florals, uh, spot or the farmer.
00:39:23
Kate Punnett
Um,
00:39:23
Kate Punnett
I mean, at the same time, i would argue sometimes there's a beautiful vintage look that happens when the flowers have had that experience of being in the wedding and then the next day they've been somewhere, you know, and then you get them.
00:39:36
Kate Punnett
So, but yeah, fresh, it is it is something I think more and more farmers and florists are going to be hearing from brides, but hopefully yeah the trend will be to get the brides in early on it, to have it as part of their wedding plans.
00:39:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. So as a grower, if one of my clients wants to have this done, would I need to, and like where I am, it's really hot today. It's going to be a hundred and I think a hundred or 103 degrees.
00:40:05
Jennifer Gulizia
A bouquet is not going to hold up very well. So they're probably going to need fresh flowers. Do I need to recreate that bouquet? Or are we just looking for the essence of the same flowers to be pressed, to give the same feel?
00:40:17
Kate Punnett
Yeah, I mean, that would be a fantastic and add on to your to your services is to give a small bucket of a few of the flowers from the bouquet and to even have that app pickup that that's kept in water. That's not used.
00:40:33
Kate Punnett
then it's just one and done. Like you don't have to come back because, you know, the bride's away. They're busy. It takes a lot of work to do this.
00:40:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:40:40
Kate Punnett
So that's what, that would be a really great add on. If you're going to get your pressed, here's what I offer and you don't need to arrange it. I mean, unless the bride is very stuck on the the sentimental nature of having it held, but I don't find it's usually to that level. It's just, they want, they've taken time plan their wedding in the season they want, often around the flowers that they want. And there's usually one or two in there that have a a nostalgic representation for them, either grandmother or color.
00:41:11
Kate Punnett
And it's really important if they have that to be able to get that flower really fresh for them. So yeah, that would be a fantastic way to do it.
00:41:20
Jennifer Gulizia
And do you work with growers or is it better for a bride or a couple to just reach out directly to you so the grower doesn't have to be involved?
00:41:29
Kate Punnett
ah Yeah, that why usually my way in is from the bride or often a maid of honour or someone wanting to gift gift this to the bride, which is a great way as well.
00:41:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:41:39
Kate Punnett
They also have to be willing to do the work though, because how do you have to get it to me.
00:41:44
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes.
00:41:45
Kate Punnett
But yeah, so I don't really have that relationship with growers necessarily directly, but it would be a great a connection to have for a grower to have a presser in their area that they like the the work that they do and they work really well. Because like all of these relationships, if if you're working well with the other business person or you know, it it gets really quick and it doesn't take a lot of our time for money. We can just develop these relationships to be like, you know, for me, it's like, here's my photographer, here's my framer, here's my grower, you know, and and everything's quick and and successful.
00:42:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Perfect. I'm curious, because you're in Ottawa, Canada, if we have a U.S. couple that wants to preserve their flowers, can we send flowers to you? Oh.
00:42:32
Kate Punnett
I don't know, actually. i am not sure. But, you know, what I'd love to do is for someone to just press the flowers there.
00:42:43
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:42:44
Kate Punnett
You know, i think it will actually like what I've been playing around with lately is and I believe me, I love large scale. I love the whole thing. Like when I did floral bouquets and events, I was all about big.
00:42:58
Kate Punnett
But there is something to be said about a small notion of something. It doesn't need to be so complicated. The process is very complicated, as we've talked about, you know, and what what if you know, I've worked very hard on my my custom frames and my my process, what if you had a few flowers, something special that you just wanted kept really nicely. How could you send that to someone and say, can you make a nice little frame of this and send it back to me?
00:43:25
Kate Punnett
That ideally is the work that I would like to figure out the pathway I would like to figure out to get rid of all the fuss. You know, sending flowers and dealing with flowers in the middle of the hottest summer is hard. So anyway, that's just something that I don't have ah an answer. I don't have a product to sell or anything, but,
00:43:43
Kate Punnett
I would love to get in the mail, just a few flowers and someone to say, I love your circle frames. It's the perfect memory for my wedding. Can you send this back to me? Well, framed, you know,
00:43:54
Jennifer Gulizia
That's beautiful. I like that idea. Do you teach or offer any workshops on how to press flowers?
00:44:01
Kate Punnett
Yeah, I do. I do a lot of online workshops. I have my first on-farm, my friend's flower farm, who I've been working with for forever. oh I'm coming to going to her farm this Saturday in the Ottawa area, and we are pressing picking and pressing right away. So I get to really talk about this freshness.
00:44:20
Kate Punnett
And I do most of my online workshops. I pop them up on my Instagram, and they're mostly attended by Americans, actually. So, yeah.
00:44:30
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you have any coming up?
00:44:32
Kate Punnett
I don't have any coming up. I just have this one. And then in September I have art shows and whatnot. And then I will have one in October.
00:44:40
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, so if people were to get on your email list, would that be a good way to find out about an upcoming
00:44:41
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:44:45
Kate Punnett
Yes. That's a good way to find out. Although I rarely send an email. I have to get better at that email market marketing. But I talk a lot. i I'm always on Instagram. i' I'm always updating in my profile what's kind of happening next.
00:44:59
Kate Punnett
So yeah. And I also do one-on-one coaching, which is a great way. That's how I learn everything is a mentorship. I paid pressers early on Just give me an hour.
00:45:12
Kate Punnett
i have a list of questions. Give me one hour of your time and you know how it is. You just get right to the point. So ah another service that I offer if you're waiting for a workshop and and there's not one coming up.
00:45:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Excellent. And we'll provide links for those in today's show notes. I'm curious. I just have a few more questions for you today.
00:45:33
Kate Punnett
Great.
00:45:33
Jennifer Gulizia
in your we've We've talked a lot about sustainability. How do you view pressing flowers as part of the sustainable approach to floristry?
00:45:44
Kate Punnett
Well, that's a personal, you know, that has a personal and a ecological and a business viewpoint. You know, I could go every direction. Personally, know, sustainable forestry was what I was doing before, but I was burning out.
00:45:58
Kate Punnett
And that wasn't a sustainable business for me, both financially and energy levels. And for what I wanted deeply inside was to have more time with my family in the summer.
00:46:09
Kate Punnett
And in terms of, you know, the ecology of, of, you know, your neighborhood or your, your city or your area.
00:46:19
Kate Punnett
I think that I'm just another, I'm another conduit to celebrating what is available locally. And i will forever tell every bride and and every post I can talk about,
00:46:34
Kate Punnett
that if you want to press your flowers, get them locally. And I think that's just another reason for people to to maybe, you know, if you wanted to be ah you wanted your flowers pressed as a bride, it might be just another reason not to get that quote for something that's flown in because you're really dedicated to this the spirit of this and you want to press your flowers well.
00:46:58
Kate Punnett
I think it's fun to avoid throwing the flowers out. um And, you know, even flowers that, know, when you're making a bouquet and, you know, if you want it to press in season, like you would be now, you know, even when you're taking the bottom of like a larkspur and you're kind of, you you have a tall larkspur and you have all the bottom little ones coming off, but you need to take them off in order to put them in the bouquet.
00:47:23
Kate Punnett
properly, those those are just popped up in the press.
00:47:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love that idea.
00:47:27
Kate Punnett
Those are just beautiful. Yeah. So there's so many, there's so many of the flowers that you're conditioning and processing right now that can then just go into the press and be used for something else, which is just like totally full circle for me. Yeah.
00:47:40
Kate Punnett
yeah
00:47:41
Jennifer Gulizia
i love that idea. Let's see her. You've also talked about slowing down, that the local flowers, trying to process them and get them out was a little fast paced for you with your life and everything you have going on.
00:47:56
Jennifer Gulizia
You described pressing flowers as an opportunity to slow down and reconnect. Why do you think this resonates with people so much in our current busy world?
00:48:08
Kate Punnett
I think that, i think it comes down to this middle spot where we're both in a period of being nostalgic and we're both and and hopeful.
00:48:25
Kate Punnett
And in order to, I think pressing flowers is right in the middle of those two things.
00:48:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:48:31
Kate Punnett
The act of pressing a flower is actually a hopeful act. You're not sad when you're prescient it or or I mean, not to say nostalgia is only a sadness. It's a feeling, it's hard to describe, but you're not necessarily nostalgic in that moment. Maybe you are, but it's more of a hopefulness for the future, right? When you've opened that book at the used bookstore and out has fluttered someone's flower, inside of that fluttering is this, the mix of both. you It carries the hope of that person that they saved this
00:49:04
Kate Punnett
for one day and the past as well. And I think right now in, as a, a culture or it's a trend, but not trend in terms of branding and and business, but just as a trend inside of our hearts is that's where we are right now.
00:49:21
Kate Punnett
And I think, uh, for me personally, slowing down and tuning in to this, uh, this the spirit of that has really fulfilled me as as a mom, as a community member, as an artist.
00:49:36
Kate Punnett
And I think that this is why people are paying attention because they know they know they're in this as well. So whether they're pressing themselves or they're just enjoying the the process of it, it's it is what where we are right now.
00:49:53
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. That's such a beautiful answer. Thank you. Okay, before we wrap up, I want to ask you, what advice would you give to someone who is interested in getting started with press flowers?
00:50:08
Kate Punnett
Well, I would say if you grow different, just get your hands on some fresh flowers, get a bouquet, get a mixed bouquet, go to the market, get as many different kinds as you want and just find a find a really, really nice press, you know, or make your own, get some plywood, make your own press.
00:50:29
Kate Punnett
And just get chipboard. Do not use cardboard. You'll be disappointed. Cardboard has ridges in it. And if you're doing like a big flower, it's going to have ripples in it. Get some chipboard.
00:50:41
Kate Punnett
Get some paper. If you can find some old felt, you can cut up a sweater if you want some more moisture moisture in there. And step on that press. Press the flowers.
00:50:51
Kate Punnett
Have fun. Press them in all the angles. Press long stems and short little buds. grab little flowers from the lawn, get weeds from your community and just fill a press full of flowers and, you know, then take them out and learn. Like it's, it's a, it's your heart and your hands and your will and all these things working at once and you start to get experience. So you just have to do that first press. You have to fill that first press.
00:51:17
Kate Punnett
You have to unload that first press and you have to find what you're successful with and keep going that, see what wasn't and try to figure out how can I do that better?
00:51:27
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. Great advice. Okay. If someone is interested in getting your press or attending one of your workshops or following your journey, where can they find you?
00:51:39
Kate Punnett
They can find me on Instagram. I'm the August press. And i also have a website where you can order directly my presses. I am uploading my prints this fall. So I have a little print shop as well for my limited edition and open edition prints.
00:51:57
Kate Punnett
And I will have all my workshops on there as well.
00:52:00
Jennifer Gulizia
Fabulous. And we'll include links to that in today's show notes. Before we say goodbye, i haven't done this before, but I've heard this on other podcasts that I listened to. And I love this idea of doing a few spitfire questions.
00:52:13
Jennifer Gulizia
So I'm going to put you on the spot here and ask you a few questions.
00:52:13
Kate Punnett
Oh, fun.
00:52:17
Jennifer Gulizia
What is your favorite flower to press?
00:52:20
Kate Punnett
Flax flower.
00:52:22
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, flax. Okay. What is your least favorite flower to press?
00:52:24
Kate Punnett
Yeah. Dahlia.
00:52:29
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, my favorite flower. i was hoping, i can't wait to try pressing them. And,
00:52:33
Kate Punnett
I should be specific. I should be specific. A pom pom dahlia.
00:52:36
Jennifer Gulizia
okay. And let's see here. What is the easiest flower to press?
00:52:43
Kate Punnett
wildflowers.
00:52:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Wild flower.
00:52:45
Kate Punnett
flowers that have The wildflowers are they're there, they do not need a lot of moisture, they're very industrious flowers and they press really well. It's the first place I'd start pressing and and it's why little kids have presses full of really beautiful flowers because they're picking wildflowers.
00:53:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love that.
00:53:02
Kate Punnett
They're not picking these cultivated flowers, you know.
00:53:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. What is the most unique item you have pressed?
00:53:11
Kate Punnett
say the radish I just pressed the other day.
00:53:14
Jennifer Gulizia
That sounds super fun. What is one thing you have not pressed that you would like to try pressing?
00:53:21
Kate Punnett
i just i just have started pressing lotus flowers and i I'm interested in pressing lily pads.
00:53:26
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:53:30
Kate Punnett
Lily pads curl up after being out of the water in like a minute. So I'm really trying to figure out how to press a lily pad.
00:53:35
Jennifer Gulizia
so Okay.
00:53:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, that'll be fun. You'll have to hopefully share on your social store social media when you successfully do that.
00:53:42
Kate Punnett
Yeah.
00:53:44
Jennifer Gulizia
And we'll be following along on that journey. Kate, this has been so fun chatting with you. I'm so excited for my press to come in the mail and I will have to tag you when I try.
00:53:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Pressing some flowers. I'm sure I'll have some failures at first, but I can't wait to try preserving some of my flowers. So thank you so much for coming on today's podcast and sharing your wisdom.
00:54:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Before we say goodbye, I promise this is my last question. Is there anything I haven't asked you today that you would like to leave our listeners with?
00:54:18
Kate Punnett
I'd like everyone to push through the mold and the mess and the failure to, if you really want to hold on to the spirit of the season or your garden or your memories with your children, push through that. It doesn't take much longer than you think to figure it out.
00:54:37
Kate Punnett
The failure rate is very high at the beginning. Just don't give up.
00:54:41
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. Don't give up and push through. Kate, thank you so much. This was a fabulous conversation and I can't wait to hear about your workshops this fall and follow along as you are showing some of your artwork this fall.
00:54:56
Jennifer Gulizia
So thank you and have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.
00:55:00
Kate Punnett
Great. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
00:55:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you. Bye-bye.