We recently connected with Grace Scott and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Grace thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have always loved pressing flowers. I still have a collection of pressed flowers from road trips, hikes in the Sierra Nevadas, and flowers from significant others from over the years. In 2020 I started gluing them in frames or on paper – then I started thinking about more ways to keep them around forever! I worked with resin and thought about jewelry and coasters as well as framing flowers! I watched so many Youtube “how to” videos and did research on social media platforms of other resin workers or flower preservation artists.

Apoxy resin was the hardest product to figure out. I practiced so much with lots of trial and error. Figuring out how I wanted to frame flowers comes second. What glue worked best and making sure the flowers were completely dry took some practice too! In one example, I pressed a brides flowers and did not get them totally dry before framing them. Unfortunately the flowers had too much moisture in the frame and got moldy in the frame! I was so embarrassed and sad and had to source the flowers and re-do the frame.

Patience and tedious pressing skills has been essential in my work. Sometimes I find myself rushing my pressing process and I always regret that. There is always more to learn and competition in this industry so it is important to find ways to make your work unique and perfect!

Grace, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Grace! I grew up in a small town outside Yosemite and have the best family I could ever ask for. I am an identical twin and am so lucky to call her my best friend. I moved to San Diego in 2012 to attend San Diego State University and earn my bachelors in their hospitality program. I met my now husband in 2015 and he has kept me in San Diego for almost 11 years now since he was born and raised here! I can’t complain, it is the best city ever! We married in 2020 and welcomed our first son in 2o23.

I have worked in the flower industry for almost ten years! I started a job out of college that was much more flower design heavy than event heavy. I fell in love with flowers though! I have worked in 3 flower shops in San Diego and worked a ton in event/wedding flower design too. During the stay at home order in the Covid pandemic I really started playing with my pressed flowers. That is when For Keeps Florals really took off! I offer fresh flower design for weddings and events and am a flower preservation artist. For those that do not know what a preservation artist is – it is pressing and preserving flowers in to art! I have sold items in stores and have an online store for my preservation work. My absolute favorite is when I have a couple that I flower their wedding, and then they want me to preserve the flowers from their special day! My best seller is an 11×15 pressed flower frame which accommodates most bridal bouquets but my online store has frames, jewelry, and coasters!

Having For Keeps Florals flower your wedding is a wonderful idea because I understand what it takes to make beautiful flowers and even know how to keep them around forever! ;) We even offer 25% off preservation orders for our couples that choose to order preservation work.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My main goal is to offer items that allow cut flowers to last forever! Who wouldn’t want that? I take great honor and pride when brides mail me the flowers from their special day or when a daughter mails me the flowers from their mom’s memorial service. These flowers are extremely significant to people so we do our absolute best to take very good care of everything we receive. Just thinking about our customers joy and hope with these pieces drives my business and creativeness.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew more about running a small business and the ‘business’ side of things! A course on how to start it from the beginning with taxes, starting a website, accounting, etc. would have been extremely helpful to me. I jumped in and had to play catch up on a lot of things after the fact.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.forkeepsflorals.com
• Instagram: @forkeepsflorals
• Facebook: For Keeps Florals