sustainability

Sustainable floral tips for DIY flower lovers

published on June 6, 2019 by Angela Hamilton

My love of fresh flowers goes back as far as I can remember. Once, my mom told me we’d be going to visit my grandma’s friend, who owned a house with a backyard full of lush gardens. I imagined fields of wildflowers, but found pristine landscaped gardens instead, like something that would line a cottage in England. Both inspire me now. I love the manicured front lawns of my Seattle neighborhood. I love the poppies emerging from the sidewalks. And when I lived in Los Angeles, I loved the bougainvillea along the freeways, the succulent gardens, the pepper trees.

Writing for the wedding industry didn’t curb my floral obsession, but inspired me to learn more about creating arrangements myself, so I could bring these blooms into my own little corner apartment. Working from home can be drab, and I don’t take for granted what the peonies blooming by my side as I write this have done for my mood. Beauty is important.

Flowers can be a frivolous thing, especially when thinking of the environment. Why not leave them be? I understand this argument, but as a crafter, DIYer, lifelong learner, and lover of beauty, there is something really fulfilling to me about creating something new with these small miracles in life. And luckily in my DIY flower adventures, I’ve found, there are many ways to create more sustainable florals.

Sustainable Floral Tips for DIY Flowers

1. Don’t buy fresh cut flowers at the grocery store. Purchase from your local market instead. Most blooms you’ll find at the store are imported. Thinking about the environmental effects of transporting them (and their need for refrigeration) from a top exporter like Colombia alone, is enough to make any eco-friendly DIYer uneasy. Then there’s the question of where they’re coming from, how they are grown (and with what chemicals), and how the growers are compensated (and treated). Perhaps we can dive deeper into this later, but just know that there are many reasons to go local when it comes to fresh flowers and plants.

I created these bouquets during early spring’s daffodil season, so all the daffodils and tulips here came from a market from farms in nearby towns.

2. Supplement with foraged and dried blooms. In Tin Can Studios book Handpicked, Ingrid Carozzi mentions times she would gather greenery or flowers right outside or at the event venue, to round out her arrangements. Often weeds and overgrowth can contribute to more undone, wild-looking arrangements (just make sure you aren’t taking from a delicate habitat that needs them to thrive.)

I love to add a few dried flowers from my personal collection in DIY arrangements. Some dried blooms are ones I’ve dried on my own (like these carnations), and others were purchased at a local farmer’s market. (During the winter here in Seattle, a lot of farms depend on sales of dried rather than fresh flowers, so it’s easy to get.)

Tip: Preserve or purchase a big bunch of dried flowers, then carefully deconstruct the bouquet so you can pull from individual stems when you create a bouquet. For example, eucalyptus is hard to find here, so the time I was able to buy some at the market, I saved a few sprigs. They do get dipped in water since I pair them with fresh flowers, so I trim the stem when I’m ready to save it for a next time.

3. Arrange and rearrange. Some flowers last only a few days in vases, where others (like ranunculus, can you believe it?!) can last up to a few weeks! Whenever I make big arrangements to enjoy at home, I rearrange them every two or three days, picking out anything that can’t be salvaged. Then I rearrange what I have, trim the stems, and replace the water.

I think I used this bunch of baby’s breath in three arrangements before it stopped looking fresh! No need to throw them out when its initial arrangement went… there was plenty of life left.

4. Take care of your cut flowers! It’s important to get to know the kind of blooms in your DIY flowers, so be sure to ask about them when buying at the market. They are the experts! Most flowers live longer if you trim the stems and replace water regularly. Different types of flowers also like different temperates of water, so there’s a lot of details to consider. Learning about the flowers you love, rather than just heading to the grocery store and grabbing a bouquet that will wilt in a couple days, will get you so much closer to truly sustainable florals.

If you’re looking to learn more about sustainable flowers, I recommend the books Handpicked and Foraged Flora.

How do you keep your hobbies as sustainable as possible? Let us know if you try any of these sustainable floral tips for your DIY flowers!

What it Means to be a Creative Designer with a Zero Waste Lifestyle

published on April 30, 2019 by Angela Hamilton
updated on November 2, 2021

If there’s one question that defines our generation, it has to be this: how do we align our lives with our work, so that we’re doing work that represents our desired lifestyles and values, while supporting ourselves and our families? Natalie of Natalie Hands Studio is one business owner doing just that.

I’ve seen a few freelancers who have branded themselves in a way similar to what I do in my business—targeting small brands and organizations that are committed to environmental and social responsibility in their work. I get a little spark of hope with every new website I see that makes it loud and clear that they’re here to support positive change.

When I saw Natalie’s website, I noticed how different it was. It was gorgeous. It had personality. Scrolling to the bottom, I saw this headline: Book your project with us and we plant 12 trees.

It wasn’t long before I connected with Natalie, asking her what it means to be a designer focused on a zero waste lifestyle. As I got to know her, I learned that she lives in Portland, OR, working toward zero waste in her personal life and in her studio, and is gearing up for a minimalist, mobile lifestyle spent traveling the continent with her husband, beginning this July.

As we chatted, I could sense that many things in her life was done by design. This idea of intentionally designing your life so that your personal and professional sides align, and so that you align with the needs of your environment hits on that burning question.

Tell us a little about your personal commitment to low impact living and how that came to be:
So, my low impact living journey actually began about 4 years ago. I was super broke and looking for ways to achieve these beautiful looks I had conjured up for my first apartment on a tight budget. That’s when I stumbled upon zero-waste living online. I had always been a DIY type of woman, but I immediately became enamored with the zero waste lifestyle and knowing that it had such a positive impact! From there, I dove headfirst into doing everything I could to minimize my waste, reduce plastics in my life, and reduce my impact. I’ve been working over the years to further reduce my impact, and my excess as a whole, in ways that work best for my life. My next step in that is going vegan!

Was there a time when your professional life didn’t mesh with your commitment to green living? Was there a turning point or more of a gradual shift to running a “green” business?
Absolutely. I was the Art Director for a wholesale candy company in Kansas City, MO for a while. While working there, I was overseeing all product development and packaging needs. I realized how much waste was happening in my department and for some reason that had never clicked with me as a designer. All those candy wrappers from product photo shoots, baggies from mockups, hardly used paper, etc. It really clicked one day, and I ended up developing a recycling program for the company and implementing more eco-friendly methods of product development. Soon after, the company was bought, and the entire staff was let go. This was when I jumped into the full-time independent creative life and brought those methods over to my own business.

In what ways has your eco-friendly lifestyle influenced the ways you run your design studio?
It’s really affected my business in many ways, but some of the main ones are how I work in general. I’m just overall more conscious of my decisions and their impact. I do 99% of things digitally, I rarely ever print, and I skip the coffee shop waste and make my own cold brew and nut milk. Every decision I make in my business always comes with the question “But, what’s the impact of this?” For example, I love the current trend of laying out your work all beautifully and getting great shots of it, but what do I do with that paper I printed out for that one photo shoot afterward? What do I do with the product my client sent me for portfolio photos after the shoot? Instead, I just avoid all of that and make mock-ups in Photoshop. Another thing that really crossed over was how I utilize tools. Everything in my workspace has multiple purposes and will last me a very long time.

You plant trees with every project you book. Tell us about your partnership with OneTreePlanted, and how that came to be an integral part of your business:
Yes! Every time a client books a project with me, I donate to OneTreePlanted to plant 12 trees in areas affected by forest fires. It was something I was doing for quite some time, without talking about it. Once I began letting clients know it was happening, they were intrigued and happy knowing their dollars went somewhere great. Now, it’s just something I put out there in hopes of other independent creatives seeing it and doing something similar in a realm that they’re passionate about.

As a business owner in a creative industry, what advice do you have for others about finding work or clients that align with your passion for sustainability?
When a client doesn’t directly align with your passion for sustainability—which is often—it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work together. It’s an opportunity to educate and help them align a bit more. You have the chance to chat with your clients about these things and to help implement them into their business. Everything from merely talking about why you provide digital mock-ups instead of traditional or sourcing local-to-client, sustainable goods all add up and leave an impact! Also, just put it out there. People love knowing you’re doing something good and aren’t just another independent creative trying to get that money and go.

Love this perspective. Find Natalie nataliehands.com at and follow her on Instagram.

(First three graphics by Natalie Hands Studio)

Fashion & Textile Designer Sivan Ilan: What It Means to be a Value-Driven Designer

published on March 18, 2019 by Angela Hamilton

Introducing our new friend, multidisciplinary designer Sivan Ilan based in Philadelphia. Art, fashion, and textile design all intersect in her work, which ranges from weavings made from textile waste to a collection of hand-embroidered fashion made from upcycled designer denim and so much more. As an artist and designer, she’s driven by her values of mindfulness, community, and environmental responsibility, and considers them from beginning to end in her process. If you’re looking for insight on how to incorporate your core values more fluidly into your own work, we think her words will resonate in a big way.—Angela

Before running your own creative studio, you worked with some larger fashion brands. How does your process differ now that you’re running your own business?
Working for big fashion brands has taught me lessons that are so incredibly fundamental about the how-to’s of building and running a successful business. I learned about the things that work, and more importantly about what doesn’t work. It allowed me to fail and make mistakes with multiple safety nets, something that’s not as safe to do when you’re running your own show.

The greatest privilege about being my own boss is that I set and follow my own values: mindfulness, community, environmental responsibility. When designing for a bigger organization, especially in the fashion industry, some personal compromises might have to be made for the greater good of the company. A designer’s job is ultimately to be attuned and adapt to a market and a consumer, and that might not always align with your own creative vision.

Being a value-driven designer is gratifying and gives an immense sense of purpose that may not be easily attainable when working for a brand that’s motivated by sales and numbers more than making a positive impact.

Another big plus about being a small business is how much more personable it gets. Getting to know customers, hearing their stories and understanding their needs and interests. Aside from the fact that it helps me greatly to fine-tune my work, it’s so rewarding to know there’s a real person who I’m creating for, rather than ambiguous data in a chart.

You’ve mentioned “recycling as a last resort”. What role does waste and recycling play in your business?
Problem solving is a fun exercise in creativity. It’s so important to me that I give thought to what materials I’m using and their impact on the user, the work and the environment. Rethinking purpose or end-use is a resourceful tool to optimize those materials and make sure they’re not being mindlessly discarded. It’s also a way to differentiate the product and offer an unusual or surprising element to aspects of design we might take for granted like merchandising, packaging and more. By upcycling and repurposing I’m eliminating the need to use virgin materials, and at the same time extending the lifecycle of the ones that I do choose to reuse.

Eliminating waste is also a key component of staying sustainable, and actually starts at the beginning of the creative process, way before considering to upcycle or repurpose.

Being mindful is huge for me as a designer as well as an individual, and it often means being aware of a project’s needs and sticking to a plan. Upcycling, repurposing and recycling are all symptom-based design tools. They address the issue long after it originated. What we all really should be doing in the first place is act with intention and pay attention to generating any excess we may at later encounter as a by-product of the design process.

How many fashion brands think about the waste issue before they even begin? That’s what we need to be doing. See more of Sivan’s work at sivanilan.com and on Instagram or Etsy.