Hi there. I'm Susannah
I've been making things for as long as I can remember. It started with drawing and coloring in paper mermaid dolls made in my bedroom when I was a kid, to then studying interdisciplinary visual art in college, and eventually — after about fifteen years focused on family and career as a public school educator — finding my way back to making art.
These days I have been spending my time making beaded botanical suncatchers that refract the light in ceramic and terracotta pots during the long stretches of time between growing, harvesting, pressing, and arranging the blooms for pressed-flower paintings. My main focus combines my love of gardening and the outdoors with my love of creating, by hand and mind, intricate compositions from pressed flowers. I work with blooms and foliage grown in my Southwest Washington garden, or gathered on visits to my parents' home just across the Columbia River in Oregon, pressed and set into little compositions that captivate the eye.
However, the ideas won't stop coming, so I'm sure there will be new creations in the future!
Founder & Artist
Susannah Jane Woehr
About Finch & Petal Studio
I opened my Etsy shop under the name Goldfinch Works back in 2011 when I was living in Seattle with my now husband. Back then, I was mainly focused on making minimalist necklaces using sterling silver and gold fill chains, findings, and semi precious stones. After a little while, most of that was boxed up, and I put my shop on indefinite hiatus.
We moved to Camas, WA in 2021 after I took a job as a high school principal. About three years ago, I stumbled upon the idea of pressing flowers to use in artwork, and my creative spark was rekindled. After playing around with the flowers I grew in my backyard garden or those I gathered from my mom's much more impressive property, I decided it was time to reopen my shop.
It's grown from jewelry-making into what it is today: sparkly, botanical, a little whimsical. I decided to change my shop's name to Finch & Petal to more accurately encapsulate the botanical themes and mediums I'm working with.
The spare upstairs room definitely has the best light, so my husband and daughter graciously didn't argue when I called dibs. However, our recently adopted cat, Millie, has decided she gets the best solar recharging in here. I guess having a studio gremlin isn't so bad.
Capturing time
Pressed flower paintings are statement pieces - compositions with complex layouts made entirely from flowers grown by me, my mom, and occasionally gathered from a friend’s yard or foraged from around the neighborhood. All of the flowers, leaves, and foliage is then pressed and preserved by me in my little upstairs studio.
Here's the thing about pressed flowers that nobody tells you until you're in it: you can't rush the flowers. Growing them takes a season. Pressing them takes weeks. And building up enough of a varied, well-preserved supply - the right colors, the right shapes, enough of each to actually compose something - takes months, sometimes years. My garden gives me what it gives me, when it gives it, and the pressing process is slow and a little unpredictable by nature. So each piece reflects years of patience and victory in successfully preserving the beauty of Mother Nature.
