We were lucky to catch up with Ariel Cortez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ariel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea for this business started after the still birth of our first born daughter, Elaina, from a neural tube defect known as Anencephaly. I knew I wanted to preserve the flowers from her service as well as condolence bouquets. I started looking into different methods of pressing and preserving flowers and got to work. I knew I wanted to create memorials for her to give to close friends and family, and had the idea to decorate matings with the pressed flowers and place a photo of our daughter in it for each one of them. I made around 12 frames to start off. From there I started pressing more and more flowers, picking flowers around my home town and pressing bouquets I received as well. I wanted to keep our daughters memory alive and from that EverlainaBlooms was created. My goal is to share her story with others and create beautiful pieces of artwork from a place of love and appreciation. Every piece I make, I think of her and the light she has given me, and I hope it brings light to others lives as well. Selling my work has given me the outlet to create beautiful things for others, as well as offer my services to grieving families who have suffered a loss.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Ariel, I’m 28 years old, I’ve had a love for painting and doing arts and crafts and all the creative things my entire life. I considered myself a jack-of-all trades for a long time, but didn’t find that one thing that set my soul on fire until I started pressing flowers. Each one is unique and the possibilities for what you can do with them are endless.

I create pressed flower frames and artwork and incorporate different mediums whenever I can; acrylic, watercolor, glitter, the list goes on. I offer bouquet preservation as well as custom requests. I decorate matings for photos frames, floral arrangements in float frames, as well as other art pieces incorporating dried florals whenever I’m feeling inspired. From the start, I have offered my services for those who are grieving the loss of a child at no cost. I have been blessed to be able to create memorials for multiple families who have lost their children. Every frame that is sold goes towards this goal, and I hope to be able to continue this project for many years. It helps me to keep Elaina’s memory alive, as well as all of the other precious lives that were lost too soon.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My business started out of a time where I was grieving and at one of my lowest points in my life. After losing Elaina I wanted to just crawl into a hole and hide myself away from the world. Something in me would not allow that and pushed me to create something beautiful from the loss. There was a lot of trial and error with the flowers; some didn’t press properly, some tore while trying to remove them, some molded due to too much moisture. I kept with it and continued pressing and playing with different flowers and different methods until I felt comfortable. A lot of the time I wanted to give up, but my daughters memory kept me going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://everlainablooms.etsy.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/everlainablooms?igshid=YTQwZjQ0NmI0OA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/everlainablooms?mibextid=LQQJ4d