Kmpressed began years ago when one 20-something Virginia woman tucked a few garden-grown cosmos into a book, piled other books on top, and forgot about them until a cold winter's day. Opening the pages to rediscover those pressed blooms, still pinkish purple and beautiful, flipped a switch. Later that year, she looked up how to build a flower press and with a few scrap pieces of wood and the help of her husband, the little business was born.

Karly Murphy, flower fanatic, amateur gardener, botanical artist, wife and mother, has now been pressing flowers for over five years. After officially opening up shop on Etsy in 2016, offering pressed garden flowers and ferns inside glass coasters and as paper artworks, her work grew to incorporate wedding bouquet pressings, glass wall hangings and tabletop artwork in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, printed artworks and greeting cards joined the lineup, which became "perennial" offerings (please excuse the plant pun) while the batches glass originals still tend to sell out quickly. In 2022, Karly began experimenting with cyanotype art, and in 2023 added watercolor painting to the mix.

Now, a rotation of almost a dozen flower presses process blooms year-round, whether from the home garden, roadside or forest (wild plants always identified and responsibly gathered), or special occasions including weddings, anniversaries, memorials, etc. Karly's garden focuses on specialty plants well-suited for pressing, most of which you can't find at your average flower shop and many of which she starts from seed in winter and early spring. The woods behind her home and the properties of family and friends provide further material throughout the year, including ferns, the always-lovely dogwood blossoms in spring, and beautifully colored leaves in fall. 

Original glass artwork is still made available in batches periodically, with announcements on date and time typically made on Instagram (username @kmpressed) or to email subscribers (sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dOb-mD). To inquire about a wedding bouquet pressing, please send me a message or email at karlylovesplants [at] gmail [dot] com. Other custom requests are reviewed depending on current schedule.