A John Deere Publication
Countless hours go into growing, collecting, and pressing the flowers and foliage used for these works of art.
Specialty/Niche June 01, 2026
Pressed Perfection
Flower farm to art; beautiful blooms persevere.
Story and Photos by Martha Mintz
Homesteaders have hobbies. Sometimes, hobbies nudge people toward the homestead life. That was certainly the case for Keith Kralik and Rachel Parri.
Today they refer to themselves as 'Pressed Botanical Artists.' They harvest blooms from their small Paonia, Colorado, acreage and from private farms and ranches in the area and beyond.
The once fleeting pops of color are pressed, dried, and arranged in whimsical botanical collages. Some feature unique color pallets, highlight a season, or display swirling, flowing designs. One such creation even tackled the challenge of turning juicy, hard-to-press garden vegetables into delectable wall art.
It all started in their urban Denver backyard. They were both working as restaurant servers when Covid hit. They spent their lock down covering every inch of their yard with raised planters to grow vegetables and flowers.
As the plants established, they found themselves with an abundance of poppies. They got Keith to thinking about how to preserve their beauty.
"I decided to press a few. I experimented with mounting them and then made some rudimentary frames out of scrap wood for my creations. I just used them as little gifts," he says.
Above. Great care is taken to preserve color and structure. Large blooms like roses or sunflowers sometimes are supported by pieces of felt to maintain shape. It takes Keith and Rachel's combined skills and effort to produce these fun and beautiful prints. They share their work on FlowerPressStudio.com and @FlowerPressStudio_. Flowers are pressed in layers of paper and cardboard. Some fragile flowers have to be put directly into presses the moment they're picked. Others are so hearty they must be wilted, even disected to get a good result.
Setting seed. Life returned to normal and Keith and Rachel returned to work. Pressed wedding bouquets started trending, so the pair offered to press a friend's wedding bouquet. It proved challenging.
"It was late autumn and there were dahlias in the bouquet. It turns out those are one of the most problematic flowers to press," Rachel says. They had to make multiple tries, sourcing replacements to get the beautiful result they wanted for their friend.
Though challenging, they realized this was a side hustle they could enjoy and had the skill set to do. They put the word out and before they knew it, they had nearly 200 clients booked for their first wedding season. It was a welcome challenge as Keith had recently been laid off from his job at a startup.
In order to learn and test pressing techniques, Keith and Rachel would ‘strike' weddings for florists.
"We would show up at 11:30 or midnight after a wedding and take many of the flowers home with us to press what would otherwise be thrown away. We did that the entire winter ahead of when our real work would start the next summer," Rachel says.
Once the summer season hit, the business took over their 1,600 foot house and garage. There were flower presses everywhere.
For the 2022 season they worked 10-12 hours a day, pressing, designing, gluing, photographing, and spending an endless amount of time changing paper. Flowers are layered between paper and cardboard in homemade wooden presses for the process.
"If you don't change the paper every day the flowers go to heck," Keith says. They lose their color, wrinkle, drop petals or mold.
Keith was also doing all the framing. It was exhausting.
At some point, Keith found the time and energy to design two original pieces with leftover flowers. He filmed the entire process and posted a reel on Instagram. The couple promptly took off to New Zealand for a much-needed break.
"We went on a four-day hike in the woods and when we came out we had like 50,000 more followers on Instagram," Rachel says.
They spent hours responding to every comment. Then a print company reached out to see if they would be interested in selling prints of the pieces.
This kicked off new adventures, and more learning. Photographing the originals was a challenge as was navigating print making.
Shifting (happily) from wedding bouquets to original fine art saw other changes. They got to spend more time outdoors either growing their own flowers or sourcing flowers and foliage from local flower farms.
One such adventure took them to Paonia. The small valley cradles orchards, vineyards, farms, and access to wilderness. The call of a slower, more intentional life was strong, so they purchased a rundown house on an acreage.
Since May 2024, they've worked to remodel the house and establish their gardens. Until they can grow more of their own flowers, they work with area landowners to continually build their inventory of dried flowers to create new pieces.
Inspiration can be a struggle. Keith has a giant table where he spreads the flowers and arranges them into designs. He often starts and restarts to find what works.
"It helps to have a plan," he says. Like painting, having a predefined palette of colors is helpful. This strategy resulted in a gorgeous monochromatic piece featuring white flowers. It's been used as a print, puzzle, wallpaper, and there are plans for more applications like wrapping paper.
Keith and Rachel have developed online tutorials to share their process and are considering in-person workshops.
Their blooms are far from fleeting. What once would have only brought a few days of joy can now brighten lives for generations. ‡
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