Crafting memories: Bouquet & Frame
Rosie Breen Frank, owner of Bouquet & Frame, showcases her work
Photo: Sasha Moonilal
By Sasha Moonilal
Remember those flowers you spent so much money on at your wedding? A new studio in the Glebe is now offering a way for newlyweds to keep at least some of them forever.
Flowers have long been symbols of love, celebration and gratitude and are often at the centre of the most cherished moments in life. Preserving them is a unique way to create a tangible keepsake, and that is exactly what Bouquet & Frame does! Located at 218 Fifth Avenue (formerly Fifth Avenue Spa & Nails), this new studio takes your flowers from a special occasion, like a wedding or a graduation, and transforms them into meaningful works of art.
Owner Rosie Breen Frank is an artist and Glebe resident with a rich background in the creative arts. She graduated with her Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, moved to Ottawa with her husband and has been doing floral preservations since 2019.
“I love flowers and am a deeply sentimental person,” she says. “I wanted to work with people with meaningful flowers to create heirloom-quality works of art that they can share with their loved ones.”
Bouquet & Frame does more than just floral preservation. Breen Frank offers a creative service that takes delicate sentimental items such as fresh or dried flowers, ribbons, even special pieces of paper and transforms them into either functional or wall-based works of art. She can preserve them in pressed frames and limited resin items such as bookends, paperweights, trays and ornaments.
“It’s a very collaborative process that is based on the memories and lived experiences of the clients,” says Breen Frank.
She estimates that 75 per cent of her business is preserving wedding bouquets but a surprising number of people show up with flowers from funerals.
“It sounds dark, but you have these beautiful flowers, and you get to memorialize someone you love. It is very uplifting, believe it or not!”
Bouquet & Frame also offers various in-studio workshops where you can get creative with friends. Some of the workshops include “Mommy & Me Crafternoon,” held every month, where parents can turn their baby’s initial into a lovely floral keepsake, and “Crafts by Candlelight,” held on the last Friday of each month, where you can unwind with crafts, good music and happy times with friends.
Breen Frank started Bouquet & Frame in 2020, working at home until she opened her studio late last year. The Glebe is the perfect location for her studio space. She loves being able to walk to work and that her kids can stop by with their friends to say hi when she’s at work!
The Bouquet & Frame studio has been everything Breen Frank has hoped for. The space allows her to consult with clients and easily meet with customers when they are dropping off or picking up their flowers. “Interacting with clients is such an important part of the process, and for the first time, I can do it in my very own studio.” The space is bright and colourful and displays pieces of her work. She hopes to introduce more ready-to-purchase items from local makers in the future.
The pandemic had a significant impact on her business when she was still working from home. Because of lockdowns and social distancing, she could only consult remotely when new brides came to drop off their flowers. “We would have to stand with my glass apartment door between us as we spoke on the phone,” she says. “It felt very surreal or like something out of a dystopian novel.”
Some orders were cancelled because weddings were postponed. But this challenging time did bring unexpected joys, such as having the opportunity to create floral preservations after backyard mini-weddings that felt more special than usual because of the circumstances.
Breen Frank is excited to continue to grow her business now that she has an in-person studio and to continue with her creative practice of pressing and preserving flowers. She is also excited to host more workshops and events in the studio. She can be contacted at @bouquet.and.frame or www.bouquetandframe.com.
Sasha Moonilal is a communications professional and freelance writer.
