The Cut Flower Podcast

BOUQUET PRESERVATION AND FLORAL ART

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 156

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0:00 | 21:54

Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Explore the art of floral preservation, the emotional significance of flowers, and the journey of Made Eco from a creative experiment to a meaningful business. Nooriya shares insights on techniques, memorable projects, and the impact of flowers as emotional keepsakes.

Key topics

  • The origins of Made Eco and its evolution
  • The process of floral preservation and art creation
  • The emotional significance of flowers and memories
  • Techniques and challenges in floral preservation
  • Collaborations and memorable projects

Nooriya visited Field Gate Farm last summer, leaving with a selection of our summer blooms which she preserved and transformed into the delicate and ethereal art work Held in Bloom.

You can connect with Nooriya in the following places

https://madeeco.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/madeecouk/


Rosalind Chandler (00:00)
So hello and welcome back to the Cut Flower Podcast. Now today's episode feels very, very special because we're talking about something that sits just beyond what we usually focus on. Not just growing flowers, not even arranging them. Well, what happens after that? We spend all this time nurturing them, watching them grow, cutting them at their absolute best, and then quite quickly they're gone. They're either sold at a market or they're used in a funeral arrangement or used in wedding flowers.

and we don't see them anymore. And that's part of their beauty, isn't it? That fleeting nature. But today I'm joined by someone who's found a way to hold on to that. Last summer, I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming Nooriya from Made Eco to the farm. We walked the fields, we picked flowers together, and what's come from that is something really, really quite beautiful. So Nooriya, welcome. It's so lovely to have you here. Let's start at the very beginning.

How did it all become about? How did Made ECO come about?

Nooriya (00:59)
Hi, Roz. Thank you so much for inviting me onto your podcast today. So how did Made Eco begin? So Made Eco, as it might be recognised today, we are recognised for preserving flowers and turning sentimental and seasonal flowers into artwork. But if we go back to the beginning, it was slightly different. It was never part of the plan and it's something that evolved.

over time and quite unexpectedly. So going back to the beginning, actual brand Medeco began in around 2018 and both my husband and I, who were busy working in healthcare, wanted to sort of spend some time creating sustainable products and lifestyle products. So that's the origin behind Medeco and how it began.

Alongside that, around that time I was exploring my sort of creative pursuits when I had the time and I remember sort of going all the way back in end of around 2018 when I had a bouquet of flowers at home from the famous Columbia Road flower market which isn't too far from where we live.

Rosalind Chandler (02:07)
No.

Nooriya (02:09)
And I wondered how that might translate into a framed art piece for the home. And so I started sort of simultaneously, you know, creating lots of different art pieces and experimenting with floral preservation. And in the early days of the business, I shared some of these pieces as part of the

sustainable homeware, range from a deco. And I suppose the real sort of turning point came when a bride reached out on Instagram and said, could you do something like this with my bouquet? And with my wedding bouquet. And at that point I had spent a fair amount of time experimenting and creating original art pieces. So I felt.

ready and up for that challenge and excited and nervous by the prospect. But I still remember that first bride and she was lovely and she gave, yeah, and she gave full creative freedom. And I remember sort of putting together the artwork and I shared it on Instagram and the response was completely sort of overwhelming and unexpected. Lots of other brides reached out and said, you know,

Rosalind Chandler (03:04)
Always. Yeah.

Nooriya (03:23)
I'd love for you to do this with my bouquet too. So that was a slight turning point from a business point of view. And I would say sort of over the years, we've worked with hundreds of sentimental, meaningful bouquets and created original art pieces with them, giving a really sort of special momentous occasion and flowers a new lease of life and a different art form.

Rosalind Chandler (03:48)
It's amazing. Isn't it funny how some things happen by chance? You know, like you went to Columbia Road, you looked at the, you obviously had a love for flowers, but it's not, you then turn that into, well, we're going to work with flowers, which is quite a big leap. Was there a moment when you thought, this is really what I want to do? Or has it just evolved?

Nooriya (03:51)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So from the moment I started experimenting with flower preservation, I remember it became something that took up a lot of my past time. and in particular, moving sort of towards the pandemic, was a time I'm sure many of us can remember, a time that was full of uncertainty. And it was probably the first time where outside of work, I needed something to...

focus on and that's just going to be a therapeutic outlet. so I had spent a lot of time exploring, creating and just really enjoying that process of learning with flat preservation. Of course, the practice of floral preservation, as we might all know, dates back thousands of years. for my sort of personal journey for me, it started around that time period. It started

when I started with that initial bouquet that I thought let me try and turn this into artwork and it very soon developed into a passion and trying to find ways to explore techniques, to explore sort of the art form, develop my own style in that process. I was really enjoying that. was what followed with the bouquet preservation offering as a service.

as I said, it happened quite unexpectedly and behind it all is that real passion to create with hands, to work with flowers that come in all shapes and forms. They can be quite unpredictable because you're working with organic materials. So I would say even fast forward all these years on, that's a part of it that I still enjoy that no tubicays are the same.

No two flowers are the same. You might have two tulips that you put into a flower press, but how they behave is completely different. So that really keeps the spark there and it's something that I really enjoy.

Rosalind Chandler (06:08)
my goodness I know

so for anyone listening who hasn't come across your work before what actually happens when someone sends you their flowers so they arrive what what's the process it's a long process I know and I also know that everything you do is very beautiful and very but it will take a long time and it's just understanding what that process is

Nooriya (06:20)
He

Yeah.

Yeah, so you're quite right. It is a long process that requires a lot of patience and there's lots of different stages behind it. But if we were to take, for example, when we accept bouquets following a wedding, which is one of the most popular ways of preserving flowers in terms of what we offer. So from the moment that

a couple's, you know, gone through the wedding, they'll post their bouquet to us, which comes into the studio. We unpack the bouquet. And this might sound like a strange concept, but because they've spent a day in transition, what we would do initially is we separate the flowers, rehydrate them just to, yeah, perk the flowers up. And then at that point, every single bouquet is

Rosalind Chandler (07:08)
Okay.

Nooriya (07:14)
studied with fresh lens and as I was saying sort of the techniques and then skill sets that have been developed over the years they're applied in different ways so one bouquet might go through several different sort of processes of preservation and even from that sort of early moment of receiving a bouquet or we're already thinking about the design how it might translate and using

the different techniques, some traditional, some more modern and applying those to the individual flowers and giving the flowers time to evolve and transform into the new state and that's quite a meticulous process, quite hands-on. And the preservation process itself, it can take up to sort of around the eight week mark on average and then

From that point onwards, the preserved flowers, they enter the design queue, they're taken out and then the design process begins and that can take some time as well. Then there's the framing and then once that is completed, we post out the completed artwork back to the client. So all in all, it's quite a lengthy process but one...

Certainly, I think the response that we get from our clients is that it's always worth the wait. And actually, if you think about an occasion like a wedding for a lot of couples, it's quite nice to have something to look forward to several months down the line. Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (08:36)
later on.

Wow. What's the most difficult flower to work with?

Nooriya (08:42)
Anything that has a lot of moisture, so things like succulents, orchids can be a bit tricky as well, but I would say over the years, having gone through lots and lots of trial and error and learning lots and lots of mouldy flowers along the way, there's definitely techniques and processes there to be able to handle sort of most flowers.

Rosalind Chandler (08:54)
Yeah.

Wow, it's just another world to me. I think what's so powerful about your work is it's not just the flowers themselves, it's what do you feel people are really coming to you for. It's not the flowers, it's what's in the emotion or the memory or the what is it that they're actually coming to you for.

Nooriya (09:24)
That's a really interesting question actually. And I think, yeah, you're right. It's more than the flowers, I suppose. It's what represents. Oftentimes that can be a milestone, a wedding, one of the most joyous days for people's lives. And it's about the memories attached to the flowers that we were. Yeah, it's about the memories and the emotions that

Rosalind Chandler (09:31)
Yeah.

That's more it, I think. Yeah.

Nooriya (09:49)
brought up from looking at an art piece that was created with the same very flowers you might have held down the aisle. For example, one particular client who comes to mind, her wedding bouquet was made by her grandma using flowers grown in the garden. So there's so much more to it and it's about, I think...

the sentiment behind it and what it represents and the memories and the emotions. And then also, I think it's important to recognise, I mean, the way I look at it anyway is and what we say is we're not your traditional floral preservation company in that I don't look at it as preserving the bouquet because really and truly.

the flowers in their fresh state and the florists, the amazing florists who work with them, that in itself is an art form. The way I look at it is taking that original bouquet and reimagining it as a new art form. So, you know, it's not about just replicating that original bouquet. So actually what that can then lead to is an original piece of artwork that a couple has commissioned using something that's really meaningful to them. And

This is an art piece they then hold within their home. They get to carry forward with them through many more milestones and hopefully maybe even pass on as an heirloom to the next generation. So that's something quite special, I would say.

Rosalind Chandler (11:15)
very very is there any one if is there any one that you once that you've done that you can remember that they hold a special place in your heart

Nooriya (11:25)
So it's a strange thing. actually, I remember pretty much every single art piece that I create. And I think part of that is not because I have an amazing memory. I think part of that is because of how long you spend with the flowers from the moment you receive them and this communication and beforehand.

Rosalind Chandler (11:36)
you

Nooriya (11:46)
And even when it comes to the design process, I'm fortunate in that a lot of the creative freedom is completely left up to me. But we do ask couples to share their stories, their photographs. So we get to learn a bit more about them. And so there's, would say, know, there's been so many memorable ones over the years. But in particular, I think one that featured on a

The Wildflower magazine recently, I was asked, there one that comes to mind, was something outside of a wedding commission. It was an art piece I created with flowers that were grown in a family home that was lived in for 20 years. And the daughters, gathered those flowers and wanted to turn it into an art piece to give to their mum. So that was something truly special.

Rosalind Chandler (12:32)
If you could just let my daughters know that, that would be great. There might be quite a lot of flowers for them to collect and they wouldn't know which ones to do, but that would be really lovely. If you could just nudge them in the right direction, I'd quite like that too, because there's something very lovely about that. We find that if we're doing funeral work, you know, if we're asked to go to the deceased's garden to pick from, you know, that's been tended lovingly by them. Or even it might be an allotment with vegetables on or whatever it happens to be. There's some human connection going on there.

Nooriya (12:35)
It's in.

Hehe.

Hmm.

Rosalind Chandler (13:01)
And you know, we fill it with weddings too. mean, the reason why some people choose sweet peas is because it reminds them of their grandma and that kind of thing. in the same way, it's producing the art at the beginning, but what you do is another league, I have to say. So I think that's what made our collaboration feel so natural. So let's talk about that because we both work with flowers at different points of their lives, of their journeys. Obviously, I'm growing them and then creating something from them. And then they've left me generally.

they're then going on to another journey. So let's talk about the day you came to the farm that was quite amazing. You turned up to just pick some flowers up and out of that came something very special but it's kind of that's what we did didn't we? We turned up, we had a discussion in my kitchen, we went to pick some flowers and then we formed a collaboration so you never know do you who you're gonna meet and what you're gonna do. So let's talk about what you were coming for that day and how that happened.

Nooriya (13:36)
That was lovely.

You

So I remember connecting sort of, we had connected on Instagram, which was lovely. I, you know, working with flowers, I get to see flowers at the almost towards the end of their journey. So for this collaboration, I mean, it was just amazing to be able to see flowers that are grown from seed on British soil and being able to actually

walk through the fields and capture them in their most, you know, fresh state. the collaboration to me, it felt quite naturally aligned, sort of what you represent, what Fieldgate represents as well. You know, it felt like something that felt like an exciting collaboration to work on together. I'm not sure.

Sort of.

Rosalind Chandler (14:42)
Same thing, it evolved didn't it? And off you went in your car, I remember it really well,

with a bucket of flowers and thinking we're going to make something out of this, but not really knowing what at that point. And then the idea of held in bloom started to come together, didn't it? And you started to work on something. And that was all your creativity, that was you taking a bucket of flowers and thinking, okay, what am I going to do with that? It felt different for me, you know, obviously we're doing it from seeds and growing.

Nooriya (14:48)
Yeah.

Rosalind Chandler (15:09)
and then they handed them over to you and you did something marvelous with them. So let's talk about Held in Bloom. What is that and how did that become a part?

Nooriya (15:19)
So the actual art piece that was created from the beautiful flowers grown in your farm, there was a lot of thought that went behind the art piece because once they'd gone through the meticulous sort of, you know, six to eight week long process of preservation, when it came to putting those flowers together for an art piece, for me,

when I reflected, it was really important to honour the field that they were grown in and where they came from and the farm itself as well. so in terms of the actual arrangement, the way it's been laid out, although from a distance, it looks like a meadow of flowers. It was important to leave space between each stem.

to leave some white space around the flowers, to allow the individual flowers to stand out in their own right. And there's a lot of what I would describe as natural movement of the stems within the art piece. So a lot of that is, you know, completely taken from how they preserved in their organic state, how they retained their shape, the movement that was directly reflected onto the art piece.

And I suppose the final art work, you look at it, art is quite subjective. I think it would evoke something different in every person. But for me, when I look at it, it's a reminder of the value of British-grown flowers and yeah, British-grown flowers, the beauty of each and every single bloom individually, but also

Rosalind Chandler (16:42)
Me too.

Nooriya (16:50)
how they come together as a collective from a distance when you are able to appreciate the flowers that are grown in a field. Those are some of the things that come to my mind when I look at the finished art.

Rosalind Chandler (17:00)
Definitely.

I mean, moment I obviously we then made it into your you made it into a print and a beautiful three different size prints. And I received all three of them. And the moment I opened it, I fell in love with it. It's just a beautiful piece of artwork. Full stop, you know, and then then you start to ponder and then you think about all the bits that are in it and all the different blooms are in it. And they're all British and they're all summer flowers. And and it's definitely held in bloom. It's definitely is they're held there in a point. And so we decided

Nooriya (17:12)
Thank

Rosalind Chandler (17:30)
then didn't we to turn this into a piece of artwork and some prints of three different sizes and that we would put something deeper behind the collaboration that we would have a percentage of the cells would go to breast cancer now which felt really important to both of us. Those of you who know will have followed my journey will know that I had breast cancer in 2024 and that therefore giving something back

was really meaningful to me and that's what we decided we were going to do. So the print is now available in three different sizes and it is a limited edition print and it is available on Nuria's website which is madeeco.co.uk and we'll put that in the show notes too so you can have a look and also on Nuria's Instagram which is phenomenal.

From someone who works really hard on Instagram, when you look at Made Ecos Instagram, you'll realize immediately what sort of effort and what beautiful work is being done. So I implore you to all go and give a follow. So.

Nooriya (18:25)
Thank you.

Rosalind Chandler (18:29)
I'm going to finish with this when someone brings this piece into their home what do hope they feel? So they get this piece of artwork and they know some of it went to breast cancer and there is lots of meaning and collaboration behind it. What do want them to feel when they put it up on the wall?

Nooriya (18:42)
I think, as I mentioned earlier, think it's about appreciating the beauty in nature, having an appreciation for things that just the cycle of life, know, something starting from seed, going through all the various different stages of bloom, then to

being hand-picked, to being preserved and then continuing that journey actually even beyond that into a fine art print. I hope when people look at this art piece they feel joy and it brings light and colour into the home and ultimately just an appreciation for nature and bringing a piece of nature into the home as well.

Rosalind Chandler (19:21)
It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Anybody who sees it in my house is beautiful. I have it the biggest size of course, framed and ready and on the wall and it's beautiful. So I want to say thank you so much for joining me. It's been such a lovely conversation as always. And to everybody listening, this really is Flowers Held in Bloom. Do go and have a look at the website and not just for a moment, but for much longer. That's the idea. So if you've enjoyed this episode, do share it, tag us and let us know your thoughts. We always love hearing from you.

until next time we'll see you soon. Take care.