Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hayley Hungerford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hayley, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Since a very young age, I have always had a passion for connecting with other people through creative projects. After graduating from KCAD with my degree in illustration, I found myself interested in pursuing floral design to see if it might be something I could see myself connecting with. The ephemeral quality of flowers and working with an organic medium was so exciting, and the connections and friendships I found myself making through working in the industry were so life-giving and meaningful. Prior to floral design, I used to engage with drawing, writing, playing music, printmaking, and even trying my hand at ceramics. However, I enjoyed the process of arranging flowers more whole-heartedly and the passion to learn more, and keep growing as a floral designer has continued on.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I used to walk to a local flower shop and ask for a bag of petals and scraps to take home and play with. I simply loved arranging the different colors and textures. It wasn’t until the flower shop owner asked if I would ever be interested in actually arranging flowers, that I considered there was maybe more to this interest and passion for me than I realized. After freelancing for many different florists for several years, people began inquiring to see if I might be able to design for their weddings. I never envisioned myself owning my own business, especially as I valued my connection with other florists so much and didn’t want to lose that. It’s wild to think that I never wanted to book my own weddings, then I used to really pray that maybe 2 or 3 people might want to book me as their florist and now we own a full service design studio where we provide floral services for over 70 events a year. I love being in a position where I can work side-by-side with my husband Zachary, and dear friends who we pay to help us when designing for events. I value being in a space where we can connect with the wonderful community and provide flowers for everyday occasions as well as for weddings and events. We also teach floral design workshops from time to time, and our floral studio is fully stocked with a thoughtful curation of cards, candles, books, home goods and more. We support as many local flower growers as we can to keep our walk in flower cooler stocked and are always grateful to share blooms with folks stopping in who are each in need of flowers for different occasions.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

My husband Zachary and I were just talking about this last night, in a way, we both are really connected to this feeling of harmony. We are always trying to find balance in our designs and bring harmony to whatever it is that we’re working on. Some flower stems are unexpectedly expressive and interesting. We love to embrace the natural movement of flowers and we feel blessed to be able to share that beauty with others.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to think that everything that I interacted with creatively was very much about pouring myself into the work. It was hard to feel like the work had meeting if I wasn’t identifying with what I was working on. All of it felt really vulnerable and emotional and when I would step back and look at the result of what I had made, and oftentimes, my art felt too private to share with the world. I don’t really like thinking about what it’s like to unlearn something, but it became clear in the process of designing with flowers that the work didn’t have to be all about me and my identity anymore. I realized that I can still work to achieve something beautiful or something that has meaning and value by entertaining concepts and ideas and by practicing layering and combining different ingredients. There’s so much I value about the creative process of flower arranging, and I can still put my heart into what I’m working on without feeling like too much of my identity is mixed in.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Hyssopfloral.com
• Instagram: @hyssop.floral

Image Credits

Julian Navarette