Sometimes customers ask me,
“Are these flowers all made by hand?”
And when I say yes, they often respond the same way:
“Wow, you must have incredible patience.”
But is that really true?
If anything, it’s quite the opposite.
The Same Pattern, Different Flowers
Each flower I make begins with a pattern I designed myself.
The petals are cut to the same size.
They are assembled in the same order.
And yet, somehow, the finished flowers always turn out a little different.
Each petal curves slightly differently as it dries.
The angle at which I attach them shifts, even if only by a fraction.
The way colors overlap changes every time.
As long as something is made by hand, it can never be perfectly identical.
And Then One Day
At first, this troubled me.
Because the flowers kept turning out differently each time.
But one morning, a simple thought came to me.
When you think about it, flowers in nature are never exactly the same either.
Even those blooming on the same tree, even those opening on the same day — each one is slightly different.
And that is what a flower is meant to be.
That was the moment something shifted.
And I allowed myself a kind of freedom.
A Flower That Exists Only Once
Whoever takes home one of my flowers receives something that exists only once in the world.
They may look similar in color or type,
but the way the petals curl, the way the flower opens — that expression belongs only to that one piece.
There are things that cannot be replicated, no matter how hard you try.
Maybe that is the true meaning of handmade.
To make something by hand is to accept that it cannot be fully controlled —
and it is within that lack of control that the flower finds its expression.
Why I Never Get Bored
This is also why I never get tired of making the same flower, even dozens of times.
Each one blooms a little differently.
And every time, I find myself wondering—
what kind of expression will this one have?
That quiet anticipation is what keeps me returning to my worktable.
Sometimes I see people take their time choosing a flower.
They look at one, then another, unable to decide.
And that makes sense.
Because they are all different.
So it’s okay to take your time.
Until you find the one that speaks to you.