A Delightfully Different Pressed Flower Jewelry Artist; and To Dye For???

I'd like to introduce Wenland, a pressed flower jewelry artist with a different approach.

These flowers are on slabs of Onyx. I find the effect stunning! (http://www.etsy.com/listing/57061663/fireworks)

This looks like a tiny perfume bottle, but is a glass tile! (http://www.etsy.com/listing/57864868/red-tiny-flowers)


The next one features a flower on a mother of pearl flat oval:
(http://www.etsy.com/listing/57864868/red-tiny-flowers)

Wenland has been working with pressed flowers for 10 years now.  I love her work.




Re "to Dye for":  my biggest conundrum has been the question of coloring or dying the flowers in jewelry. I have literally agonized over this question, and at a couple of points actually nearly quit making my jewelry.
Many pressed flower artists--possibly most, add coloring or dyes to the flowers so they won't fade, and to correct colors that are off because of age, glues, spots, etc.  The World Wide Pressed Flower Guild (WWPFG) (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pressedflowerguild/) has many posts, guides and classes about how to use dyes and colorings, the products, and different results obtainable.  The best pressed flower artists in the world belong to this guild. ( I am certainly not in that category!) And some of the most lovely pressed flower jewelry on the market is made with flowers whose color has been enhanced.  (See Wenland, above!)


I love  the natural colors of flowers and find I prefer to make my jewelry without enhancing the colors. And I love the fact that vintage and antique lockets and pendants with the natural flowers show the lovely antiquing. Yet I started to be concerned that I was charging what I consider a large amount of money ($20.00: I'm from the old school--my kid says the VERY old school!) for pressed  flowers that would fade, be it in 2 or 5 or 50 years.
My friend  Dianne of a Gift For All Seasons, and my husband helped me see reason. She pointed out that we do the very best we can to adequately describe our product, and give instructions for taking care of it, and then it's out of our hands. My husband pointed out that if someone buys jewelry they expect to last a lifetime, they'd be more likely to pay $200 than $20.00 nowadays.
  So I've decided to try to follow the "Serenity Prayer" advise, and just make my jewelry the way that makes me happy.
Thank you for visiting my blog.  Comments are welcome.  Chris

 TIP OF THE DAY: I have been using Diamond Glaze to correct little scratches and sanded areas on my not-quite-finished jewelry, rather than mix up another batch of two-part resin, and the results have been good.