Character Corner
Welcome to Character Corner. Here you can meet characters from my current or upcoming releases and learn more about what makes them tick. Please note the links to additional vignettes in the sidebar.
The Flowers of Eden from To Win Her Heart
 If you were to walk into a Victoria-era home, one of the dominant decorating themes you would see is flowers. They were everywhere. Woven into the rugs, stitched into the upholstery, painted on the wallpaper, even carved into the furniture. Given this trend, it's no wonder that in the 1800s one of the most popular hobbies among women was flower pressing.
The heroine of To Win Her Heart, Eden Spencer, is passionate about flower pressing. She adores flowers and loves to preserve them by pressing them and then turning them into framed works of art. However, she is cursed with a black thumb—she kills every domesticated plant she tries to grow. Therefore, her only recourse is to collect clippings from the wildflowers that bloom naturally throughout the spring and summer.
 Some women pressed flowers for sentimental reasons. If a beau gave them a blossom, they might press it between the pages of a favorite novel or volume of poetry. If a young boy gave his mother a daisy, she might slip it between the pages of the family Bible. The color from the petals would often bleed onto the book's pages leaving an imprint even if the flower was removed. Today, if you shop for antique books, you might come across a volume with these markings or even the flower itself still pressed between the pages.
The serious Victorian hobbyist, however, would harvest her flowers with a field press in hand, so she could press them immediately. This helped to preserve the vibrancy of the colors. She would go out late enough in the day to ensure the dew had dried, since moisture in the petals could create unattractive dark spots or worse, mold in the press. Flat, simple flowers work best. If the flower was too thick, it wouldn't press properly. Pansies, daisies, bluebells, and violets work exceptionally well with their single-layer petals. Ferns, leaves, and interesting grasses were often pressed as well and used as texturing in the artwork.
  The flower press was usually made of wood, and the young lady would layer blotting paper beneath and above her flowers to absorb all the moisture. Some presses would have an iron top that could be tightened with a crank-like handle. Others, though, would be simple pasteboard or wood held together with leather straps. Eden used the strap variety.
After the flowers had been pressed, they could be stored in paper packets for later use. Once enough had been collected and dried, the flowers could be arranged on silk, lace, velvet, or other background fabric and then framed under glass for a keepsake that could be proudly displayed on a parlor or bedroom wall.
You can find some incredible modern examples here.
 
|
