Artist Spotlight: Carol Christenson- Pressed Flower Jewelry

There is something quietly extraordinary about wearing a flower. Not a silk approximation or a printed pattern, but an actual flower, pressed and preserved, set in jewelry you can carry with you every day. That is exactly what Carol Christenson brings to the Cottage Gallery and Gift Shop at Rotary Botanical Gardens.

Carol's jewelry is made from pressed flowers she harvests herself, gathered from her own gardens and from wildflower patches she has tended and explored. Each bloom is dried and set by hand, meaning no two pieces are ever the same. The variation is the point. Different flowers, different color combinations, different settings, each one a small, wearable study in what nature makes when left to its own designs.

She has been a part of the RBG gallery for about five years, and the connection to the Gardens feels natural in more ways than one. For years, Carol and her family made annual visits to Rotary Botanical Gardens, always finishing with a stop at the gift shop. When she noticed the shop didn't carry anything featuring real flowers, she saw an opening. Her jewelry, made from the very thing the Gardens celebrate, felt like an obvious fit.

Carol is a Master Gardener with the University of Minnesota Extension, and her passion for plants runs well beyond aesthetics. She has made a deliberate effort to fill her garden beds with native plants that support pollinators, and she spends part of her time as a Master Gardener helping others do the same, whether that means reconsidering a lawn, adding a pollinator patch, or simply learning which plants give back to the ecosystem around them.

She is also an enthusiastic houseplant grower, which she describes as something close to essential given Wisconsin winters. Keeping her hands in the soil year-round is how she stays connected to gardening through the months when the outdoor garden is resting.

Carol grew up in Poynette, Wisconsin, and earned her degree in atmospheric science from UW-Madison. After a 35-year career as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, she embraced retirement as an opportunity to explore new directions. These days, her time is filled with gardening, jewelry-making, and continued volunteering with the Master Gardener program. Though she spent many years in Duluth, Minnesota, she makes frequent trips back to Wisconsin to visit family, and by her own account, she is still a Wisconsinite at heart.

You can find Carol's pressed flower jewelry in the Cottage Gallery and Gift Shop at Rotary Botanical Gardens. Stop in to see what is currently in the collection.