Briarwood Studios Flower Essences: Supporting Balance and Transformation

This blog was originally posted on the ACEnet website, you can find it here.

Flower essences are made from fresh blossoms infused in water, activated in sunlight, and preserved with brandy. Flower essences work through the body’s electrical system and are considered a form of energy healing. The electrical pattern of the flower carried in the essence serves as a catalyst to support change in thought processes, emotions, and feelings. They support balance in our emotional responses and help us transform our lives. The essences, according to their various properties, can bring calmness and peace as well as strength and protection. Flower essences can also work to support deep transformation.

Dr. Katherine Ziff of Briarwood Studios is a flower essence maker and practitioner. She received her flower essence training from the Flower Essence Society and the FES professional practitioner certification in 2014.

“About eighteen months ago I approached ACEnet about support for advancing my business, Briarwood Studios Flower Essences. At that time I had created nineteen flower essences and wanted to bottle and market them. I filled out the intake form, met with staff, and ACEnet agreed to take Briarwood Studios on as a client. As I consider where we began, I can hardly believe the progress we have made.

We now have 41 individual flower essences, which we bottle at the ACEnet production facility at Nelsonville. Our bottling process has been inspected and approved by the Ohio Department of Agriculture as Good Manufacturing Practice, our labels meet the FDA requirements for herbal supplements, and we have partnered with Passion Works Studio to develop four new flower essence blends. In September we introduced our Rose and Lavender floral mists – botanical waters with flower essences including our own Multiflora Rose.

Briarwood Studios has published four newsletters and now offers a mail order catalog. Kindred Market in Athens carries a selection of our flower essences, and I have written two articles about our flower essences, published last Spring and Summer in international journals.

ACEnet’s support has been essential to our progress. We bottle our flower essences in the Nelsonville production facility which has everything needed to comply with the detailed safety and sanitation regulations for manufacturing flower essences. Even now, with the Covid-19 considerations, ACEnet maintains a manufacturing environment that allows me to bottle our essences with confidence about safety.

And speaking of Covid-19. Maggie at ACEnet worked with me to develop a beautiful brochure for the other part of our business, which is in-person flower essence consultation for individual clients. (We have a library of 250+ flower essences from around the world and offer custom blends created to meet the needs and intentions of our clients.) We have had to pivot from in-person to electronic/phone consults. This summer I have piloted this new way of working, and our next step is going to be a website through which clients can access consultations and purchase our individual flower essences.

Before becoming a flower essence maker, I was a mental health clinician and worked in that community of colleagues. In addition to technical assistance, being an ACEnet client offers access to small business colleagues so that you feel a part of a community of manufacturers, a word that I have learned comes from the Latin manu (meaning hand) and facture (meaning a working). Which is great to be a part of a local community of “working hands!”

You can follow Briarwood Studios Flower Essences on Facebook & Instagram!