MESSY

With a heavy heart, hello. What a year its been. 5 months in and 2020 is truly starting to feel like the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end. That sentence has been ripping through my mind like a tornado lately, and this morning I had a thought - maybe its not. Maybe, just maybe this is THE beginning. Not of the end, but a true beginning. A beginning to mark the end of a broken system, racism, patriarchy, climate denial... What if the collective WE has finally been heard?

While I know the patriarchy works against me, I cannot claim to know how it truly feels to belong to an oppressed group. And while I cannot claim that things have been easy for me, I also know that they have been easier for me than for others because of the color of my skin. The systemic racism and violence that exists in the world today is the culmination of all the racism and violence that has come before it. Sadly, peaceful protests haven’t been known to help advance us much in that department. As a mother, I have the responsibility to raise an unbiased child and this is not a something I take lightly. We all need to be held accountable for our part in contributing to covert racism. My source for parenting through a critical race lens is The Conscious Kid. Its been a great resource for books, for fundraising and for raising awareness. I have been urging all parents…anyone really…to follow along.

Here’s to beginnings…here’s to change. For information on where to become more informed and how to help:

https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/

https://www.patreon.com/theconsciouskid

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

https://www.joincampaignzero.org/solutions#solutionsoverview

https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud

https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/bailbondfaq

https://brooklynbailfund.org/donation-form

https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/

FANCY A VESSEL?

Hello! I know things are strange right now and I just wanted to send some love from my family to yours.  I hope everyone is hanging in there. I know it's hard right now. With so much uncertainty it's been difficult to stay positive all the time...and THAT'S OKAY!

Being a floral designer right now is complicated, and i'm sure things are complicated for you as well. Here at Dead Flowers, trying to stay creative is the only thing getting me through as the days march on. 

I have been immersed in my pressed flower project that is finally starting to come together after a lot of, well...waiting. Patience is not one of my virtues, and waiting is the hardest aspect of patience for me to grasp, which makes this all the more rewarding. It all started with my flower press. I was pressing flowers to pass the time, just call me Emily Dickinson...I guess I was starting to feel the isolation. I ended up with quite a few flowers, so I figured i'd experiment with objects around the house. A month of experiments later, FLOWER VESSELS came to life.

 FLOWER VESSELS were born of a marriage between the need to feel useful and the need to find a new way to work with flowers during this time. What I love most about these is the idea of their reincarnation. They are made from vintage Syracuse China that I source by the piece along with real, hand pressed flowers.  Finally, a coat of resin seals it all together - both the florals and the vessels are given new life without having to add to an already overcrowded universe. 

The intended use is decorative, however a BPA free artist resin has been applied over the flower.  If your intended use is sipping summer wine and eating olives, then please be careful when cleaning. There is a delicate relationship between the flowers and their vessels. 

This batch is currently up on the site, and more will be coming soon! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have been! Sending love to each and every one of you!

Love, Laurel