Hello, I’m Charina—creator, artist, and dreamer-in-chief behind Orchid & Pine Studio.

I’ve been creating for as long as I can remember.

I was the kid who couldn’t help drawing on every surface within reach, filling journals with stories, ideas, and dreams. When I was six, I painted a giant mural on our living room wall.
(My parents were… surprised.)

That same curiosity led me to fashion design school, where I learned how to translate imagination into form—through applied design, craftsmanship, and asking a lot of questions. So many, in fact, that one drafting teacher limited me to just three per day.

It was hard to stick with three, but it taught me something lasting: how to slow down, choose what details truly matter, and bring focus to a mind that loves many kinds of creativity.

After ten years of building a fashion business and running a brick-and-mortar shop, I began to feel the pace wear on me. The fashion world moved fast. Too fast. 

Life gently—and then not so gently—pulled me toward something quieter, something deeper.

I stepped away from fashion and into mindfulness, meditation, and a decade of service through teaching yoga. I traveled to India and beyond, experiences that expanded my view of humanity and filled my inner landscape with new scents, colors, textures, and stories.

Those years taught me how to soften.
To listen. To notice what’s underneath the noise.

Traveling showed me how much we share, even when our lives look nothing alike. A longing for connection. For care. For being understood.

That way of moving through the world led me closer to the earth—and eventually, to flowers.

Now, flower growing and floral design feel like coming home. They weave together everything I love: the creativity of design, the soulfulness of meditation, and the grounding rhythm of working with my hands in nature.

I approach this work with the same curiosity I had as a child, and the same spark I carried as a twenty-year-old design student. I love learning the quiet, fascinating details—how flowers grow, how they dry, how they hold shape and memory—and sharing that knowledge through the portraits I create and the classes I teach.

Every pressed floral portrait I make carries the threads of this journey:
a love for beauty,
a devotion to presence,
and a love for the fleeting moments that shape our lives.