It has been 5 months since I fell in love with dried flowers. Me of my 20s wouldn’t believe that someday I will find joy and happiness just by collecting and making dried flowers. I used to think it was a waste of my time. But now, it’s a way for me to appreciate the beauty of nature, my own space to be creative and being present, and express my soul visually.
It was at the end of April 2021 when I started to realise my life is a bit boring. Every day I woke up at 7:30 am and then prepared to go to work. I often came back home between 5 or 6 PM. I can feel my life lacks something.
After watching a Youtube video of a girl decorating a photo frame with dried flowers. I thought to myself, that might be something I could do. It looks fun and easy to make. So I started collecting wildflowers around my neighbourhood. I am always cautious about not taking too many as I might harm the plants.
When I was in high school, I once tried to make dried flowers. But I didn’t succeed. The flowers turned into mould and got rotten. So this time, I did some research online on how to dry the flowers properly. I learned the best time to collect flowers are between 10 to 12 pm when they are dry enough but not too dry out because of the sun to preserve the quality of the flowers. If I collect them too early, they might contain moisture from mist overnight which results in rotten later.
There are several ways to dry flowers at home but for me, I love putting the flowers I collect inside a book and put heavy items like my laptop or a box on top of it. I then have to wait for 2 weeks so the flowers can be dried completely.
At first, I was tempted to open the book and see what happened with my flowers. I wonder if it is ok doing this way? Are there any mistakes that might fail my experiment? If I open it now, I can fix it.
But a voice inside my head said: "you need to wait. If you open it now, it will ruin everything". And just like that, I realise I am learning to be patient. I actually enjoy waiting for my dried flowers. I know there is something exciting waiting for me. Just with that thought, it fills my day with joy.
After 2 weeks, there were some flowers turn out exactly as I thought but some weren’t. At first, I felt disappointed. Then I told myself: "Let’s try it anyway, see what I can do from it". And it turned out ok. I don’t want to brag but it looks pretty to me.
Dried flower cards
Thanks to this experiment, I have an opportunity to learn about myself. To understand what I want to do and how it helps me to live in the moment.
Thank you for reading my post today. If you have any questions about how to make dried flowers, let me know in the comment below.
