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Steamboat woman’s new business, Posy, preserves memories

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — In a tiny room in the back of Heartwood Studios, a woodworking studio located on Downhill Drive in Steamboat Springs, Dani Thompson has created a vision, and an opportunity, for brides everywhere to save their wedding flowers.

Dani Thompson in her Steamboat Springs studio where she creates resin blocks to preserve wedding flowers and more. (Courtesy photo)

Thompson dreamed up Posy, the small company she runs herself, which she calls a “classic COVID story.”

A former freelance video producer and editor, Thompson was laid off from several of her longtime clients when COVID-19 hit.



“I had a chance to sit and think about what I wanted to do next,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to have a creative career, and I love working with my hands.”

When she and her partner Kyle Roddy, a co-owner of Heartwood Studios, spent the summer building a sauna in the Adirondacks, she noticed the beauty of the native wildflowers. She began collecting them and pressing them, and when she saw coasters with pressed flowers in them, she decided to try the craft herself.



“I ordered a few molds and some resin,” Thompson explained, “and it was the worst thing ever. It was so hard and looked nothing like the videos that I had watched. But there was something about it — I just kept trying to master it.”

After six months of pouring resin — an activity she describes as “not cheap” due to the fact that a gallon of resin costs about $100 — Thompson believed she had mastered the craft enough to start the business.

Several months later, that business is thriving, with brides finding the company on Instagram and Etsy.

Brides ship their wedding flowers overnight to Thompson who uses a special process to dry them, so they still appear fresh. They are then placed in silicone molds and cast in resin — a process that takes seven to 10 days for one piece.

The end product is a block of resin, which comes in various sizes, with the flowers preserved into it for eternity. Thompson custom creates each block with the brides, who occasionally include other items from their wedding, like a hair clip or a piece of lace from their dress.

After starting her Etsy page at the end of November, Thompson quickly received a “bestseller badge” and orders skyrocketed. In the past few months, she has had over 200 orders with 70 reservations through the end of the year. She is currently working on 24 different orders and takes on about five per week.

And while Thompson has found her own corner of the wedding industry, her creations aren’t just for brides. This summer, she will have a booth at the Farmers Market where she plans to sell necklaces, paperweights, ornaments, ring holders and more, all for under $100.

Current clients come from all over the country, but she hopes to grow her local base.

“I would love to be able to just run over to the wedding venue and grab the flowers,” she said. “And I’d love to sell pieces at local places in town, but right now, I just don’t have enough time to get the inventory together because I’m at full capacity. … I guess that’s a good problem to have.”

An 8-inch-by-8-inch resin block featuring a wedding bouquet created by Dani Thompson through her business Posy. (Courtesy photo)

In the future, Thompson has big ideas for Posy — tables with pressed grasses and flowers in them, art installations made up of her resin blocks — and she and Roddy hope to expand their studio space.

“It’s really hard for me to stop thinking about all the things we could do,” she said. “I’m excited for the future; this is clearly something that people want, and it’s really special to be able to save these memories.”

Find Posy on Instagram @posy.floral and on Etsy at Etsy.com/shop/posyfloral.

Dani Thompson will sell necklaces and other goods at the Main Street Steamboat Farmers Market this summer. (Courtesy photo)

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