Hello, my name is Deborah-Máire Moon, founder of MoonKo. I’m originally from Sussex and grew up with a deep connection to the south downs and the sea. Life's journey took me up north, to Sheffield, Yorkshire, close to the beautiful rugged Peak District which I now call home and where i started my business. Nature has always been really important to me, the honeysuckle on old fences, the gooseberry bush in my childhood garden, the seasons changing, the Hawthorn, the Rowan. I love working seasonally. The seasons pass and with each month a new flower, grass, herb to dry. I have dried cherry blossom and hyacinths in spring which have the sweetest scent when they dry. I dry honeysuckle - a deeply sentimental flower for me, nettles, herbs and small flowers like forget me knots. All these flowers connect me to my past and the ones who came before me. Drying is a process of preserving, stopping the decay, capturing a beautiful moment in time and life of that flower. I think that’s why I do it. I am capturing memories in the flowers and grasses. They are like memory catchers. I love history, folklore, this is fundamental in what i dry and why. Drawing on old family stories, traditions that have been passed down. I love drying things that people don’t think to dry, those are my flowers. People miss their beauty, like the Buddleia, folks call it a weed but the butterflies love it. I love to incorporate these into what i make, adding sprigs of herbs, like peppermint, or sage. I have been drying flowers for a really long time, fascinated by the fading of pigment and the drying process, seeing beauty in the decay. However, seeing how unsustainable the dried flower industry has become, sprayed blooms, bleached, dried out of season because of intensive growing, I wanted to do it differently. I work with natures seasons not against it, which means I have to dry as many flowers as possible while they are in bloom. I work with the most amazing flower farmers across the UK.