Dried Designs business blooms
By Tim Gallagher Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, June 18, 2006
Rhonda Wilt and Rachelle Scott work on preparing fresh flowers at Dried Designs. (Photo by Tim Gallagher)
ALBATON, Iowa -- After Roxann Kollbaum of Holly Springs, Iowa, died May 23, 2005, her two sisters and mother picked flowers for her funeral.
Without knowing it, the trio planted seeds for a blooming business venture called Dried Designs located in Albaton, Iowa's trendiest barn.
"We went through the emotion of picking out the flowers for our sister's funeral," says sister Rhonda Wilt, recalling the day following her sister's death.
"And then we saw them at the church and they were perfect," sister Rachelle Scott adds.
But the two and their mother, Beverly Roarson, couldn't throw those lovely -- and meaningful -- flowers away.
"We couldn't bear to see them tossed out," says Scott.
They knew there had to be a better way. They found one in a freeze-dry association which maintains a Web site, offering information on how to preserve dried flowers forever.
The quest took on added significance when the trio celebrated Roxann's birthday last July 5 by having lunch at her favorite Chinese restaurant. All three cracked fortune cookies which proved prophetic.
"Your business will assume vast proportions," one said.
"You may expect good fortune soon," said another.
"You are capable of building a new thriving business venture," said the third.
Bingo.
This "sister act" decided to start Dried Designs, a firm that will freeze dry flowers and other mementos, arranging them in shadow boxes, glass domes or frames for displays that live on longer than memory allows.
"We think maybe we were being called to do this," says Wilt.
From faux painting to Dried Designs
Twelve years ago Rhonda Wilt of Albaton (a community southwest of Sloan, Iowa, that was bypassed by the railroad years ago) started a faux painting business called Creative Interiors. She soon hired sister Rachelle Scott after Scott's youngest child headed to school.
"I didn't know what I would do," says Scott, who resides in nearby Salix, Iowa. "So I drove bus for the school and worked with Rhonda."
The sisters took their creative and physical energy to home projects in places all over Siouxland, doing work in Spirit Lake, Sheldon and all around Sloan. The business grew, eventually overtaking the shop area Rhonda's husband, Mike, used to command on the farm.
"He didn't much like that," she says, laughing.
Fortunately, the family had a 38-by-60-foot barn built by their grandparents, Harley "Bud" and Eva Thomas in 1927. For years the barn stored hay while housing cows, hogs and chickens.
"We filled in the gutters and smoothed the floor with a concrete leveler," Wilt says. "There are still boot prints in the back which we assume belong to Grandpa."
The women remember playing house and crawling through hay tunnels as little girls on this farm. The place now, though, is a far cry from a living quarters for livestock. The group, like many farm families, tackled the renovation with a mix of flair and independence.
"We had gotten out of hogs in 1999, so the barn (which hosted Al Gore for a campaign stop) was empty and just collecting cobwebs and junk," Wilt says. "Mike and brother Maurice and my dad, Jon Roarson, did the initial renovation."
A barn-straightener from eastern Iowa told the family he could fortify the giant structure for $8,000.
Instead, the men took out some doors, bolstered areas with reinforced plywood and hooked a cable to their Dodge Ram and pulled slowly. In no time, the structure was straightened and ready for an interior overhaul, which it received.
It might be the nicest barn interior this side of The Garden Gate in Granville, Iowa. The outside features a giant U.S. flag and a sign that reads, "Albaton, Iowa: The Heartland of America."
Wilt and Scott continued their faux painting enterprise in earnest within the barn until late last summer when another Internet search led them to a woman in Texas who offered her freeze dry machine for $10,000.
"This would cost $35,000 new," says Wilt, who traveled with husband Mike before harvest last fall to pick it up. "We brought it home. People thought we were bringing back an iron lung."
The machine, which can hold up to 2,000 rose heads for two weeks, starts the process at 20 degrees below zero before moving flowers to an ice bank with temps at 65-below.
"In between the two chambers is a vacuum that takes the moisture out," Wilt says.
After the low temperature is hit, the machine raises the temperature five degrees per day until it reaches room temperature.
"If the ice bank is no longer collecting ice, you know the flowers are dry," she says.
The key is to get flowers to Dried Designs at their freshest point. Wilt and Scott start the process by rehydrating each flower as much as possible, then pretreating them to help each retain its color and pliability before sending it to the holding freezer, the final step before the freeze dryer.
What do people want?
Dried Designs takes flowers from wedding bouquets or funeral arrangements and preserves them under glass domes or frames. But that's not all.
"We recently did a mounted photo of a mother and father with a recipe card (Mom's), a golf card (Dad's) and their class rings," Scott says.
Another woman took the roses from her mother's casket and had them dried and wrapped around each bead of her Rosary. On Tuesday, the women accepted a rose from a recent graduate of Westwood High School. It will soon be part of a shadow box display from the graduate's parents.
"We have flowers from a bridal bouquet, a bouquet for a 90th birthday, a graduation flower and a funeral floral display in our (freeze dry) load right now," Scott says.
Dried Designs has also mounted things like hankies and golf balls, all to help a loved one cherish a family memory.
The displays range in price from $25 to hundreds of dollars.
And the work they're doing is slowly removing them from the physical rigors of faux painting. With Dried Designs, Wilt and Scott don't face constant climbing, leveling and hammering.
Instead, they're tapping into their creative sides a bit more. And, their love of flowers makes each day an exciting experience.
"If you have a love of flowers, this is the perfect artwork," says Wilt while arranging flowers from a perennial club that swaps flowers in the Albaton area. "It doesn't have to be a special occasion."
Dried Designs at 13296 120th St., Sloan, Iowa, can be reached at (712) 428-6245 or at www.driedesigns.com. The shop is open by appointment.
Without knowing it, the trio planted seeds for a blooming business venture called Dried Designs located in Albaton, Iowa's trendiest barn.
"We went through the emotion of picking out the flowers for our sister's funeral," says sister Rhonda Wilt, recalling the day following her sister's death.
"And then we saw them at the church and they were perfect," sister Rachelle Scott adds.
But the two and their mother, Beverly Roarson, couldn't throw those lovely -- and meaningful -- flowers away.
"We couldn't bear to see them tossed out," says Scott.
They knew there had to be a better way. They found one in a freeze-dry association which maintains a Web site, offering information on how to preserve dried flowers forever.
The quest took on added significance when the trio celebrated Roxann's birthday last July 5 by having lunch at her favorite Chinese restaurant. All three cracked fortune cookies which proved prophetic.
"Your business will assume vast proportions," one said.
"You may expect good fortune soon," said another.
"You are capable of building a new thriving business venture," said the third.
Bingo.
This "sister act" decided to start Dried Designs, a firm that will freeze dry flowers and other mementos, arranging them in shadow boxes, glass domes or frames for displays that live on longer than memory allows.
"We think maybe we were being called to do this," says Wilt.
From faux painting to Dried Designs
Twelve years ago Rhonda Wilt of Albaton (a community southwest of Sloan, Iowa, that was bypassed by the railroad years ago) started a faux painting business called Creative Interiors. She soon hired sister Rachelle Scott after Scott's youngest child headed to school.
"I didn't know what I would do," says Scott, who resides in nearby Salix, Iowa. "So I drove bus for the school and worked with Rhonda."
The sisters took their creative and physical energy to home projects in places all over Siouxland, doing work in Spirit Lake, Sheldon and all around Sloan. The business grew, eventually overtaking the shop area Rhonda's husband, Mike, used to command on the farm.
"He didn't much like that," she says, laughing.
Fortunately, the family had a 38-by-60-foot barn built by their grandparents, Harley "Bud" and Eva Thomas in 1927. For years the barn stored hay while housing cows, hogs and chickens.
"We filled in the gutters and smoothed the floor with a concrete leveler," Wilt says. "There are still boot prints in the back which we assume belong to Grandpa."
The women remember playing house and crawling through hay tunnels as little girls on this farm. The place now, though, is a far cry from a living quarters for livestock. The group, like many farm families, tackled the renovation with a mix of flair and independence.
"We had gotten out of hogs in 1999, so the barn (which hosted Al Gore for a campaign stop) was empty and just collecting cobwebs and junk," Wilt says. "Mike and brother Maurice and my dad, Jon Roarson, did the initial renovation."
A barn-straightener from eastern Iowa told the family he could fortify the giant structure for $8,000.
Instead, the men took out some doors, bolstered areas with reinforced plywood and hooked a cable to their Dodge Ram and pulled slowly. In no time, the structure was straightened and ready for an interior overhaul, which it received.
It might be the nicest barn interior this side of The Garden Gate in Granville, Iowa. The outside features a giant U.S. flag and a sign that reads, "Albaton, Iowa: The Heartland of America."
Wilt and Scott continued their faux painting enterprise in earnest within the barn until late last summer when another Internet search led them to a woman in Texas who offered her freeze dry machine for $10,000.
"This would cost $35,000 new," says Wilt, who traveled with husband Mike before harvest last fall to pick it up. "We brought it home. People thought we were bringing back an iron lung."
The machine, which can hold up to 2,000 rose heads for two weeks, starts the process at 20 degrees below zero before moving flowers to an ice bank with temps at 65-below.
"In between the two chambers is a vacuum that takes the moisture out," Wilt says.
After the low temperature is hit, the machine raises the temperature five degrees per day until it reaches room temperature.
"If the ice bank is no longer collecting ice, you know the flowers are dry," she says.
The key is to get flowers to Dried Designs at their freshest point. Wilt and Scott start the process by rehydrating each flower as much as possible, then pretreating them to help each retain its color and pliability before sending it to the holding freezer, the final step before the freeze dryer.
What do people want?
Dried Designs takes flowers from wedding bouquets or funeral arrangements and preserves them under glass domes or frames. But that's not all.
"We recently did a mounted photo of a mother and father with a recipe card (Mom's), a golf card (Dad's) and their class rings," Scott says.
Another woman took the roses from her mother's casket and had them dried and wrapped around each bead of her Rosary. On Tuesday, the women accepted a rose from a recent graduate of Westwood High School. It will soon be part of a shadow box display from the graduate's parents.
"We have flowers from a bridal bouquet, a bouquet for a 90th birthday, a graduation flower and a funeral floral display in our (freeze dry) load right now," Scott says.
Dried Designs has also mounted things like hankies and golf balls, all to help a loved one cherish a family memory.
The displays range in price from $25 to hundreds of dollars.
And the work they're doing is slowly removing them from the physical rigors of faux painting. With Dried Designs, Wilt and Scott don't face constant climbing, leveling and hammering.
Instead, they're tapping into their creative sides a bit more. And, their love of flowers makes each day an exciting experience.
"If you have a love of flowers, this is the perfect artwork," says Wilt while arranging flowers from a perennial club that swaps flowers in the Albaton area. "It doesn't have to be a special occasion."
Dried Designs at 13296 120th St., Sloan, Iowa, can be reached at (712) 428-6245 or at www.driedesigns.com. The shop is open by appointment.
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