Meet Alycia Price | Artist & Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alycia Price and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Alycia, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I went on my usual run with my two kids in my double stroller and two dogs in October, 2022 admiring all the beautiful fall colors around. I saw the leaves and thought that they resembled feathers. This brought me right back to the joy my goofy chickens bring me at home and wanted to create a chicken out of leaves. Then, bam! I made my first piece and Pure Flora Creations was born. The learning curve with figuring out how to properly preserve the leaves, what paper thickness is best to use, what glue to use, and practice with my colored pencil work has been a steep one but so much fun in the process. It all started out as a hobby that made me happy in the little downtime I have being a mom and teacher. I created many chickens and once I started running out of leaves, I thought flower petals might be fun to work with. When I created my exotic birds collection, I thought that I actually might be onto something that appeals to more than just us crazy chicken people. I created an Instagram, an Etsy page, and bought the business name just in case this hobby became more to test all the waters out. I then started booking events, commission pieces and my Instagram has blossomed and it continues to grow and grow and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am completely inspired by the natural world around me. When you see a colorful bouquet of flowers, I see a variety of creatures that could be created with those colors. When you see a tree, I see the buds coming up and how they could contribute to some fur or feathers. I am a total forager and find all kinds of grasses, petals, and leaves everywhere I go. My kids often get pulled into random foraging on our adventures and luckily, they seem to love it too. In fact, my little guy got mad about me saying “no” to something and picked a beautiful tulip off of our neighbor’s plant and just as I was about to let him know that that isn’t nice, he dropped it in my hand gently and said “here mommy, it is for your art.”
Oh the challenges. My life was always volleyball, coaching, teaching and my major was environmental studies. Starting a business required a lot of research and luckily Colorado, specifically, has a lot of resources for this so that helped a lot in getting started.
The preserving part, however, was the biggest challenge. Every leaf is different, every petal is different, and every grass is different. With some, I can use different sources of heat to quicken the process of preservation, but every type has different heat needs with timing and temperature. A lot of petals change to a deeper color when going through that preservation process and if you use too much heat then you can burn them. I learned this the hard way but now I actually burn some on purpose for some colors I can’t get naturally. With the usage of various preserved flora, I bring the personalities of various animals to life. A surplus of time, effort, thoughtfulness, and love go into each piece making them all one of a kind.
Finding time for this has also been a challenge of course with having two little ones at home and teaching as a job which provides its own challenges. Nap times and early bedtimes are how I have made it work and luckily I am trying part-time teaching this year, so it has helped provide two more days of nap times to work on this. Something that I have also embraced is making my kids a part of it too. I give them bags to help collect leaves and grasses. I give them glue sticks and spare petals to create and while there are usually more casualties and time spent on it, it makes it that much more rewarding. It all makes me so happy that I make time somehow and make it work. I found out how unique my idea was when I started doing some research on how to price my pieces. I couldn’t find anything that was similar to what I do which made the pricing more of a process of calculating but was very exciting realizing how special this idea is.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, hopefully they would be visiting in the summer or fall which are my personal favorite times of the year. Since everything really revolves around my kids and luckily most of my friends have kids at a similar age as mine, a lot of these places are family-friendly with the exception of some babysitters needed in the evenings. Places to eat would include: Urban Egg for breakfast, raw oysters and apps for happy hour at Angelo’s Taverna, pizza and pasta at Pino’s Place, Sushi at Fontana Sushi, bison steak at Ted’s Montana Grill, or cooking at home. Places to visit would be a private tour at Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary up in Erie, an Avalanche hockey game, Denver Zoo, Littleton Museum, Chatfield State Park, concert at Red Rocks, bike the highline canal trail, and Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We would be outside as much as possible and probably go nonstop in between nap times and bedtimes.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My chickens! They are my floofy inspiration behind all of how this all began. My family is my driving force and support system all day and every day and I couldn’t have done any of this without them. My dogs and kids who keep me active and outside even more often in nature.
Website: purefloracreations.com
Instagram: @purefloracreations
Image Credits
All images are my own.