FAIRBANKS — Pressed flower artist Pauline Lian isn’t sure how many flowers she collects or presses in a year.

But with 12 presses — all usually full and loaded with dried and drying plants — it adds up.

“It ends up being a lot,” she said with a laugh.

Ultimately, its more than enough flowers to last through the winter and create her delicate dried flower and plant art that can be found in gift shops across the state.

Her latest exhibition, “Pauline Lian: Pressed Botanical Art” opened at the Denali State Bank Golden Heart Branch last Friday and will run through the end of the month. She has about 10 different pressings on display, all of which showcase many of the different plants found and grown in Interior Alaska. In the show she has pressed raspberries, forget-me-nots, pansies and delphiniums.

Most of her works are small, consisting of a just a few plants. But she will have one of her larger works at 3-by-2 feet — a panoramic pressed highbush cranberry plant — on display at the bank. The plants are usually placed on piece of white or off-white textured paper and then matted to complements the colors of the plant.

Once she collects the plants, she uses a wooden press that has pieces of blotter paper between pieces of cardboard. She lays the flowers flat, and then works to dry them as quickly as possible.

She said that the dry Fairbanks weather makes for ideal plant pressing. She said the process can be like microwaving.

“You just want to dry them out as fast as possible,” she said.

Lian said that at first pressing flowers was just a hobby, but suddenly found herself enthralled by the art form. She said that since she started seriously pressing eight years ago she is now a lot better at it.

“I’ve smartened up over the years,” she said.

Contact features writer Suzanna Caldwell at 459-7504.