Written By: Phaedra, an Element Designer
Each and every item that we create at Element Design Co is made with an abundance of love and care, especially when it comes to your custom preservation pieces. These frame and resin items are made with your real flowers and greenery (and, sometimes, ribbons, photos, invitations, and even feathers!), which makes each and every one of our designs unique. Every preservation specialist and designer takes their time with the components of the bouquet and any included item to ensure everything is as well pressed and well placed as possible. However, these items are both made by hand and of natural materials, which means that there are things that are unavoidable, despite the best efforts of our team. Here, we have compiled some of the things to be aware of when it comes to custom preservation. If you want to ensure top floral quality, you can add our Tier Two service level, the Rose Experience. If you would like to become a part of the design process and get a closer look at your flowers before they are used in a design, as well as up to five proofs with the ability to edit each time, you may be interested in our Peony Experience.
Natural Occurrences
A Quicksand rose fresh and the color variety when pressed.
We have worked hard over the years to perfect our preservation method, which consists of several steps and is the longest part of our process. We tailor our methods to each order, and treat every bloom with great care. Through our years of experience, we have found that there are some things that our processes cannot control, due to the fact of working with nature.
- Some flowers will not hold to the color they had been when fresh. We have written at length about Quicksand Roses, as they are the most drastic change we’ve seen occur. The pale, pastel pink roses will adopt a blue to lavender hue when pressed, which may be perfect for some, but not so ideal for others. You can find more about them and our options if you have them in your arrangement here.
- Pink flowers of all types tend not to hold fast to their fresh color, because the red pigment necessary for pink is not quite as strong as other colors (if you have ever dyed your hair red, you might be aware of this!). While the quicksand roses are the most drastic, other light pink flowers will not be quite as vibrant as they had been fresh, but will still offer a beautiful addition to the palette of your completed frame or resin design.
- White roses have a tendency to change to a blonde hue, though some specific roses will hold their stark white a bit better. For more about white roses and all of their variations, check out this blog.
- ALL white flowers will change their hue, and will appear blonde or antiqued, especially as time passes.
- White lisianthus are super sweet little blooms whose spiraled petals mimic those of small roses, and they are a super sweet addition to any arrangement. However, we have noted that they press to be a bright yellow color, depending on the age of the flower and the thickness of the petals. The centers of a white or lighter colored lisianthus pressed on its face will react to the chlorophyll within the plant as it dries, and result in the yellow hue, when they are often more white to buttery when fresh.
- Because we press flowers on their faces, as well as on their sides, they may not be immediately recognizable to you! Roses particularly can look a bit unfamiliar to us, as they remain fairly tightly closed when fresh. When they are pressed by our team, the lovely center will be revealed, as well as a pinwheel of beautiful, softly curving petals. The colors revealed by an open face flower are lovely, often making a gradient from a deeply toned center to a lighter edge.
- Sometimes we take two identical seeming flowers from a bouquet, press them right next to each other, and it is revealed that they were totally unique from one another the whole time! You will likely see variation between flowers of the same type within your finished pieces, which is completely normal for natural items.
- The majority of flowers and their petals will shrink as they lose their water content and dry out. We can mitigate this by utilizing certain methods and allowing the flowers to take their time in the drying process. We have noticed this particularly with blooms such as cosmos, chamomile, and tulips.
Handmade Products
Our resin serving tray with petal transparency in the lily and the anemone.
Each and every piece of resin and all of our frames are created by our talented designers, who take pride in their incredible work. Before reaching a designer’s desk, your flowers will have been preserved by specialists trained to treat every petal with care, and will pass a thorough inspection by our quality team. The designers then take those flowers, combined with any additions, and create something beautiful and completely unique.
- Because we press every bloom by hand, we want to ensure that each of the flowers and leaves going into a design is of the highest quality. This takes time for us to do well, as we have to be certain that there is no lingering moisture. We also take time with each design, as these are bespoke pieces. All of these facts mean that we have a 6-12 month turnaround time. You can read more about the process and what we do to ensure the best possible pieces for you in our post about all things timing.
- As mentioned, each design is unique, because each and every bouquet is so wonderfully different. Our designers work from photos of the bouquet when they arrive at the shop, as well as any photos from the day of the event that our clients provide us with. They will create a design that is based on the photos of the bouquet, combining different angles to create something that will evoke each part of the bouquet. We have also worked hard to create certain standards that our designers follow, and they take those standards, the bouquet photos, and their own artistic skill and talent to create a piece of lasting artwork that will bring to mind the memories of your most important moments. These pieces will not necessarily be perfectly symmetrical, identical to any of our other pieces (though, we love when you show us ones you’ve loved, and will absolutely take inspiration ideas into account!), nor will they appear factory made. These products are made by hand by people who care about each and every flower they place into a design.
- We remove all of the moisture from our florals, which can make them dry and brittle. This may lead to minor debris, especially within frames that have been shipped, as the journey back to your hands is out of our ability to completely control unless you are picking up from our downtown Easton location. Our designers have tiny leaf blowers- everyone’s favorite tool!- which they use to shoo away any small crumbs of petals. We strive to get your pieces home to you in pristine condition. If you have any concerns about debris in your frame, please contact our Client Relations team, who will be happy to assist.
- While we have made changes to our resin processes over the years, which have made our resin products go from really good to really great. From increasing the size of our resin trays, to adding ring dishes and ornaments to our options, we have come far with our resin department. However, we feel it is important to let you know that there will still be the occasional micro bubbling that often happens within any resin product, especially when the material within the resin is layered and natural, such as a flower (or a lot of them!). Our resin specialist mitigates them by applying heat prior to the resin fully curing, but a few minor bubbles may persist.
- Petals of all flowers are quite delicate, and when resin is added, they can be a bit unpredictable. Rose petals, orchids, and lilies, particularly white ones, will occasionally become transparent when the resin is poured over them. We cannot predict which petals this may happen to, but will add a layer of petals to a rose that seems thin to help the end result
We hope this information is helpful to you as you plan your perfect preservation pieces. We want you to love your pieces as much as we love each part of creating them, though the medium we work within certainly has its quirks. We hope you understand that each individual at Element Design Co. has dedicated themselves to our mission of making items that allow memories to last a lifetime, and each and every one of us care deeply about the work we do. We understand that the frames will be on your walls for years to come, and that the resin products we make for you will be in use throughout your homes every day. We hope you love them as much as we love creating them for you.
Have any questions about possible quirks in your order? Contact us!
