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From Paper to Petal

We sat down with paper florist and author Quynh Nguyen of Pink and Posey to discuss her journey to becoming a paper artist, her love of the craft, and her book, PAPER FLOWERS.
Portrait of Quynh Nguyen with flowers.

Photo by Yvonne Wong

Quynh Nguyen of Pink and Posey started dabbling in the art of paper flowers 10 years ago.

FLOWER: When did you first start creating paper flowers?

Quynh Nguyen: I started 10 years ago. It’s a long, winding story. Early in my career, I was mainly in the corporate scene, and then I started my own catering business. I was very successful but worked way too much. I was young and wasn’t mindful of taking care of my body. I ended up hurting my back. Thankfully, another chef bought out my business. So I took some time off, got married, and then ended up having back surgery. During my recovery, I was trying to figure out what to do. I still wanted to do something with my hands, and I just sort of fell into gardening. There’s a restaurant called Herbfarm in Woodinville in the Seattle area that has a 6-acre farm. I really wanted to understand the farm-to-table concept, so I started working on the farm and  fell in love with it. However, it wasn’t bringing in a lot of income. So on the side, I did some corporate event planning. My super power is handling logistics and focusing on the minute details (which is really great for paper flowers). My friends all knew that I could organize and plan things really well, so they started asking me to plan their weddings and events on the weekend. Eventually, one of my brides asked me to do paper flowers. I didn’t even really understand what paper flowers were, so I started researching. I figured it out, and the bride loved my creations! We got amazing photos, and I started getting other inquiries about my paper flowers. As I started discovering more, I came across Tiffanie Turner and her beautiful work, and that’s where I fell in love with crepe paper flowers. Then things just started to evolve and grow. It’s been a really amazing journey. 

A paper flower bouquet of roses and ranunculi in a white compote base.

Photo by Kelly Lemon

Quynh loves to play with color and to get the colors as close to nature as possible. In this arrangement, dazzling real-looking flowers are arranged to create an hombre effect.

How long did it take to get good at your craft?

It was just in the past couple of years that I’ve been able to call myself an artist. With my background as an Asian person and as an immigrant, the expectation is to be a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant, etc. Most of my siblings are engineers, so I’m a bit of a black sheep in the family. However, my background in business helped put me in front of other artists who lacked the knowledge of running a business. The reality is you’re competing in the market against other artists who make the same thing you do. Eventually you realize that it’s okay. It’s actually wonderful that all these people with different personalities and different techniques are creating in your medium. I really love elevating other people. 

Overall , it was an easy entry because I only had to buy what I needed. You can start with just paper, scissors, and glue. Once I began wanting to make my flowers more realistic or add my own spin, I started playing with color. Eventually, I learned that you can wash crepe paper to pull the color out and create a beautiful ombre. A petal is rarely one solid color. It’s so magical as you dive deeper and deeper. 

I keep challenging myself to make each flower again to make it even better. It’s such a beautiful, quiet moment when you’re sitting there trying to figure how to make this better.

Close up of pink paper Japanese garden rose.

Photo by Quynh Nguyen

Quynh is naturally very detail oriented and loves to focus on the minutiae of each flower to make it more realistic, as seen here in her Japanese garden rose.

Close up of a hot pink paper fox glove.

Photo by Quynh Nguyen

Playing with different color mediums and techniques like washing the paper, using gouache, or even Crayola markers has been one of Quynh's favorite parts of developing her craft. This vibrant foxglove has a rich hot pink base and painted dots for detail.

What is it about flowers that inspires you?

Flowers just make me happy whenever I look at them. The colors are magical. They smell amazing, and you can’t say no to flowers. Just having some flowers in your life makes you smile. They elevate the spaces in your home by adding a little bit of personality.

What’s your advice for those looking to enter into the creative industry but dont know where to start?

I would say just do it. Cut into the paper. At first, I was really scared to cut into crepe paper because it was so beautiful. But everyone starts at ground zero no matter what. Your first try might be really amazing—or it might not be. And 90% of the time, it won’t be because you’re just discovering the medium. Explore it, play with it, and rip it up. Experiment with it. I think that it is so incredibly important as a creative person to play around and give yourself the grace and forgiveness to mess up. Whatever comes, learn from it and then take it to the next one. 

I do recommend keeping a journal on your experimentations and what you’ve been discovering because it’s a great way to reflect on how you’ve grown as an artist.

Bride holding a colorful paper flower bouquet.

Photo by Yvonne Wong

While Quynh was working in event planning, a bride asked her to make a paper bouquet, marking Quynh's first attempt at making paper flowers. This request would unknowingly launch Quynh into a new career.

Whats your favorite flower to make and why?

I love dahlias! We’re just now at the very tail end of dahlia season, and they are so magical—the colors, the way they’re grown, all the different shapes from dinner plate to tiny pom-poms. The one in my book, the terra-cotta dahlia, has a three-pointed petal while a regular one has one point. Everyone can find a dahlia they love because there’s such variety. They also change as they age, which is really beautiful.

What’s your favorite project or commission you’ve worked on and why?

One that sticks in my memory is when I worked with Nordstrom. This was early in my career in 2019. I met Nordstrom’s social media director, and he was so excited about what I did. He reached out to me, and we ended up doing three different projects together. The first one was on the first day of spring. We did a really cute 30-second, stop-motion piece. It did really well, so we did it again the following year. Then the third year, we ended up doing this huge cherry blossom installation.

One of my favorite flowers is the cherry blossom, and it’s really spectacular here in Seattle. I decided I wanted to do a citywide cherry blossom exhibit, so I reached out to six different stores to ask if I could put flowers in their store. I wasn’t expecting everyone to say yes, but everyone did! I thought, “Oh, no. Now I actually have to do it!” I probably made thousands of them in the end. 

With Nordstrom, I took all the different cherry blossom pieces and did a beautiful collaboration with Valentino and Gucci. It made me realize that I could actually do commercial work! I think that really boosted my career and opened a lot of different doors that I didn’t know were available to me. 

I started working on several different projects with event planner David Monn. He reached out to me to do multiple different projects, and one of them was the opening for the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. I was one of the few paper artists that did large-scale pieces at that point, and he ordered almost 1,000 paper flowers from me. While I do most of the jobs by myself, I do hire people for these really high-number projects. I’ll get them to do basic things for me like cut the wires or cut the petals, and then I will put them together. For this project, we made 3-foot-tall white tulips. My dining and living room were packed to the gills with flowers!

Close up of paper terracotta dahlia.

Photo by Quynh Nguyen

Quynh's favorite flower to make is the dahlia because of its unique petals and shape. Her book features a how-to for the terracotta dahlia.

Which flower would you recommend for beginners to start with?

I would say start with a rose. The hybrid tea rose is a good option because it is very simple. If you get too much in your head, it can be a challenge though. But if you see how the petals are formed and create a good foundation in the middle of the flower with that particular shape, then the rest comes really easily. 

Can you speak to why paper flowers are a good sustainable option?

They last, which means less waste! Paper flowers from back in the 1800s have been discovered, and they are still in great condition. They’re also easy to maintain and very sturdy. I’ve shipped flowers to Europe, Latin America, and Asia. As long as you know how to pack them, they will ship very well. 

What do you hope people will take away from your book?

I hope that it will elevate their love for flowers even more. One of the best things about paper flowers is that you can have flowers in winter! I hope people do it with friends and with their kids because it is so much fun when you create art with the people that you love. It’s a great way to pass time to be honest. I love seeing people’s reactions when they realize they’ve made something beautiful. I still get that reaction myself when I’m creating! 

Close up of paper english garden roses.

Photo by Quynh Nguyen

Quynh created the English Garden Rose: Leonora with special permission from David Austin Wedding Roses.

Quynh Nguyen holds her book, PAPER FLOWERS.

Photo by Kelly Lemon

Quynh's new book, PAPER FLOWERS, is complete with over 30 detailed paper flower tutorials.

Tell us about your podcast and the Paper Talk community.

I started the Paper Talk podcast with Jesse Chui, another paper flower artist from Toronto, Canada. We’ve met a few times in person and hosted a master class together. The podcast was born out of a desire to talk to other people in our craft. Being an artist, we’re constantly sitting by ourselves creating things. You start to miss that companionship. You also don’t realize that other people make the same mistakes  you do! We wanted to bring that voice in to let everyone know that they’re not alone. We share that we’ve gone through the same problems they have, and we share how we solved the issues. It’s so fun because we get to talk to people from all around the world, not only those who work with paper flowers but also people who work with fresh flowers. We’ve even had Holly Chapple on the podcast! Paper flowers are so inspired by what’s going on in the fresh flower world. It’s really fun to be able to talk about all different techniques and discoveries. We don’t gatekeep—we want to share everyone’s success stories and challenges. This is our fifth year doing this, and we’re about to launch our 158th episode in a few weeks. This season we’ve incorporated Sara Kim of “Handmade by Sara Kim” into the show. She’s brought a wonderful different perspective.

Working with paper flowers is still a new medium compared to fresh flower designs that have been around for hundreds of years. We’re also trying to find ways to elevate it. I think people want to come back to handmade things.

Our Paper Talk community has been absolutely amazing. It’s been a wonderful way to connect with people. If you’re looking to talk about flowers in any topic (we also have people that make sugar flowers, gum paste, felt, etc.), come join us! We welcome everybody because our main thing is that we just love flowers—and we love to figure out how to re-create them in our own special medium.

We’ve read that you visited the world’s largest garden rose farm in Bogota, Colombia. Are there other places you’d like to go specifically to see flowers?

Yes, I’m traveling to Japan in the spring! I’m going with the Canadian florist Hitomi Gilliam. She is doing a flower farm tour. One of the best flowers in the world is growing in Japan—the Italian butterfly Ranunculus. We’ll also be visiting some Japanese schools where we’ll learn how to do ikebana style. My main goal though is to visit these particular farms, see how they grow, and see all the different stages. I plan to take a lot of photos. You can only Google so much, and sometimes you need to see what’s behind the flower to see how it is being held up. It’s so fun to be able to do a deep dive and figure out how everything is held together.

Paper cherry blossoms adorn a bedside table.

Photo by Yvonne Wong

One of Quynh's first commercial projects was doing a city-wide installation of cherry blossoms in multiple retail stores. Here, they quietly adorn a bedside table.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

The next big thing is starting my book tour! I’ll be in Japan this fall to do a book signing in Tokyo. Then I’ll be in Texas at Christmas. I’ll be heading to New York in the spring before going to Philadelphia and the rest of the East Coast. After that, I’ll do the West Coast and Los Angeles. I’m also partnering with a brewery in Oregon over at Hood River. We’re coming out with a beer called Paper Flowers! On top of that, one of the few winemakers in the state of Washington is giving me a barrel. I get to create the label, and we’re going to call it Paper Petals. It won’t be out for another two years because they’re going to age the wine. 

One thing that Jessie Chui and I do every few years is open up our online course called Paper to Profit. We like to share how we’ve grown our businesses with our students and the people that are just getting into it. The course is pretty much the ABC’s of how to set up your business, all the legalities, etc. With by business background and Jessie’s law background, we have a lot of good information to share. We also bring in other attorneys, accountants, and other business people to talk about how to create brands. Then we are planning to hold a 10-week course to meet with the students and make sure they connect with at least three other people so that they can build a network and solve problems together. We’re going to launch it late next spring.

Produced by Carrie Clay

Cover of PAPER FLOWERS.

By Quynh Nguyen

Within these pages, you will find a collection of twenty-five tutorials and five floral projects that reflect not just my craft, but the passion I have for paper flower-making. It is a journey that started by accident, and has become a personal escape, a form of self-care that allows me to recreate the serene beauty of nature with my own hands. Now, I want to extend that joy to you.”

Pre-order the book and get started on your creative journey today!

Releasing November 12, 2024.

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