Problem
Pressed flowers/foliage are fragile from the process of being pressed and drying out. We knew simply placing them in a bag would not be sufficient as they could break or bend, and we knew receiving a bag with a bunch of flowers/foliage stuck at the bottom wasn’t the nicest thing either.
Furthermore, with them all bunched at the bottom, it would be hard for the customer to see what they were actually purchasing, as all our pressed flowers/foliage orders are one of a kind. As such, we knew we had to find a way for them to be:
- Safe and not damaged
- Pleasant to receive
- Easy to see the contents
Wrapping, Not Bags
We began by investigating what options were out there, and what others were doing. This was difficult as no one was really saying they sent pressed flowers/foliage in the post, and hours of internet research proved unhelpful. We were still thinking about using bags as that seemed to be what others were doing, though we couldn’t work out how to slide the card with the pressed flowers/foliage into the bag without them getting stuck, and didn’t know how to get bags tight enough to prevent movement, but loose enough to allow the card to get in.
It was when we were looking into buying boxes to ship our pine/fir/spruce cones in that we came across a product proclaiming to be eco-friendly plastic (you can read more about that here). It was sold on a roll, and said it was suitable for heat sealing. Ah ha! Heat sealing!
However, that wasn’t going to exactly work either as the contents would still be subject to gravity, and fall to the bottom. But, as we looked into heat sealers, we also saw they were often combined with vacuum sealers. That’s when we really had our “Ah ha!” moment. We would wrap our neatly arranged pressed flowers/foliage on a card, wrap them in the bio-plastic, heat seal the edges, and then vacuum it all to preserve the contents inside and stop them from moving around in transit, possibly damaging them.
Not Perfect Everytime, But It Works
The theory worked good enough in practice. There are niggling issues every now and then with the machine randomly deciding it isn’t going to vacuum that pack, or decide to suddenly seal without doing any vacuuming, but overall, the process works well enough that we are able to spend in afternoon preparing the packs, photographing them for the Etsy listings, and packing them away in their envelopes with added card for protection, a thank you card, and a freebie.
We are glad we were able to come to a process which not only addresses all the issues we had at the start, but also one which is eco-friendly, avoiding the use of glue and packaging that isn’t biodegradable or recyclable. The customer receives their pack, identical to the one they saw online, nicely and safely packaged, and can simply cut into the bio-plastic to then break the vacuum seal and tip the content out to use as they see fit.
If you wish to purchase our pressed flowers/foliage, we have a section here at our Etsy store.