Gayle Christie, owner of Florage, says people have always kept flowers as mementoes. One of only a handful of firms in the country that preserves flowers, Gayle's innovative freeze-drying technique maintains the full color and beauty of petals indefinitely. When encased in a specially designed shadow box, people have a permanent reminder of special events in their lives.

Gayle's Floral Keepsakes are Works of Art

by Gem Smith

"I wish I had known about you when I got married," is a common refrain when people learn of Gayle Christie's innovative way of preserving flowers. Using a freeze-drying process, she creates one-of-a-kind works of art from customers' orginal flowers saved from meaningful occasions.

Growing up on a farm in Kansas, Gayle had always loved flowers and pressed them as a hobby. But, one day in 1982, while browsing through a magazine, she saw a flower collage that Princess Grace of Monaco had created.

"I knew instantly that I could do the same thing," she says as she recalled the moment.

Within a few days she assembled materials and started creating her floral design using pressed flowers. After showing her creations to an interior decorator, her first commission was to design a Houston skyline for a real estate office. Using rose and tulip petals, she created an 18-inch x 24-inch wall hanging depicting downtown Houston.

From that beginning she has built a national business with customers throughout the continental United States as well as Alaska and Hawaii. She began selling her designs to boutique shops and upscale stores like Gump's in San Francisco. She lined up agents to represent her in Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles and her work was sold in boutique shops around the country. As word spread of her designs, articles about her flowers appeared in the local media.

By 1987 people began asking if she could preserve their flowers from weddings, anniversaries and other special occasions.

"I researched the market and learned that people wanted to preserve their special flowers for romantic and sentimental reasons," she said. "In 1988 I began offering custom keepsakes."

excerpted from Houston Lifestyle, May 1996

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