By Hilary Nichols

It was a passion flower that first stopped Susan McLeary in her tracks. The exotic flower ignited her passion and initiated her purpose toward becoming a florist, a designer, an artist, and an author. Yet, educator is the title Susan McLeary identifies with most these days.

McLeary orients around her calling to teach with rightful pride, having put a lot of thought into what it means. “As a teacher,” she mused. “You get an idea, usually it comes from something else you’ve seen. You think about it, you pick it apart, and make it your own. And then, I deliberately decided you share it with the world. I call it catch and release.” It is surprising to hear of such a non-traditional and generous business model, but McLeary is not a traditional businessperson—she is an innovator in her field.

Like many florists, McLeary came to the field nearly by accident. “I didn’t have any inclination to become a florist. I made jewelry for friends that were getting married, and one asked me to do her flowers.” She took to it like a natural, but when she announced the new direction, her friends were dubious. “It wasn’t thought to be an artful profession. There was no framework for being an interesting florist.” Taking it as a challenge, she began her investigation. “I tried to find people doing artistic or interesting flower arranging. I saw examples in Europe and Asia, but it wasn’t accessible.” She knew there was a niche to be filled here.

Susan McLeary started Passionflower in Ann Arbor in 2010 and expanded her offerings from centerpieces to large installations swiftly. Her work stood out right away. From a startup to a sought-after business, Passionflower was thriving.

“Her soulful, seasonally inspired creations have been described as exquisite living artwork,” is lauded on her webpage. “There was a time that I enjoyed the adrenaline of weddings, but it didn’t suit my personality. It was too intense,” she realized after eight arduous seasons. “I wanted to break out of this expected thing. I wanted to be part of elevating the industry.” Driven to innovate, she believed the role of a florist could be transformed. “I was working to flip the power dynamic, from doing what the clients’ requested, to becoming the artist.” There is an undeniable spark in her face when she talks about not only making art but making artists. “Florists are just coming into their own. They are just starting to see themselves as artists—and once you claim that, everything changes.”

“It all led pretty quickly from doing the thing to becoming a teacher of the thing,” she declared. McLeary began to teach exclusively in 2018. She shifted from Passionflower to her eponymous new business, Susan Mcleary, and began offering her on-line classes, virtual-studio presentations, and in person workshops around the world. It keeps her on her toes. “Every month I am thinking of projects that will give my membership group new ideas, artful techniques, and fresh processes to let them make new artistic stuff right away.” Having to share new stuff regularly might seem daunting for many, but McLeary trusts the process. She watches what is most inspiring in fashion, in art, in cultural aesthetics, and in the flower world to craft and share new and interesting things all the time. “The more you share ideas, the more new ideas come to you.” And Susan McLeary is known for her new ideas.

It was in this period that McLeary introduced a line of succulent jewelry. “It was really a vibe,” she recognized. Her Instagram presence took off and the publishing house, Chronicle Books, took notice and offered her a book project. Her first book, The Art of Wearable Flowers, is a guidebook with instructions to make her floral wearables.

Her husband of 22 years, Chaad Thomas asked, “Shouldn’t you trademark your work, instead of spreading it across the industry?” But McLeary was quick to reaffirm her model. “That is not the spirit of an artist or the spirit of a teacher. The spirit of a teacher is to find something good, fine tune it, and release it. Copyrights put you in the mindset of scarcity.” McLeary has other mindsets to propagate.

“It feels way better to just be at peace with the fact that nothing is worth clenching [onto] so tight.” To McLeary it is both a spiritual practice and a practical one. She is as devoted to her craft as any great practitioner. “It’s like anything,” she said. “Like baking bread. With repetition it comes to you.” She is humble but not satisfied. It is not her temperament to rest on her laurels. She doesn’t simply do her job well, instead she finds ways to undo her job.

“Any limitation becomes a creative path to go down,” she said. Michigan florists know limitations. The flower growing season here is only half the year. “What if I only have hyacinth? How many things can I do with it?” Turning it over, taking it apart, testing it in different ways, using different mechanics, and in different scenarios, she discovers new ways to approach her work. McLeary carries out these flower studies as a creative practice. It is a way to free up ideas and let wild concepts come to life.

Every artist has to combat some fears first to find their own expression. On her web page McLeary shares: “It took years to bring forth all the weird ideas I had in my head—to stop worrying about what people will think. The more courage you have to be yourself, the more people will respond to your work. Trying to appeal to everyone, your work becomes watered down. It loses its soul.”

Flowers do touch our souls. They elevate any situation immeasurably. McLeary understands their effect. “I aim to give people pause, to make them curious, and allow them to experience the wonder of nature through the medium of flowers.” It’s a wonderful affirmation that there is beauty in this world. Flowers are so pure, they seem above reproach. “One would not think the floral industry is a dirty industry. But it is,” McLeary reminds us. Environmental concerns do mar the industry from the shipping impacts and soil concerns to the wasteful single-use products that florists typically amass at any given event. The product called floral foam is ubiquitous and as McLeary discovered, it is unnecessary. “My personality really loves identifying pain points of the industry and then chopping away at the solutions and offering my findings.”

Accent Decor, a major purveyor of wedding props, invited McLeary to collaborate on a number of products to relieve the need for single-use materials. The most notable is a six-foot-tall stand with up to six water vases attached for foam-free mechanics that is easy to break down, transport, and store. She’s working to give the industry tools to become more artful and more sustainable. Her students know that these are her central tenants. “Developing practical, relevant design applications is my focus. My mantra is compostable or reusable” all while being distinctly beautiful and unique, of course. The bar is high.

This September, McLeary will introduce a workshop locally at Marilla Field and Flora with Dani Vignos of University Flower Shop. It offers a deep dive into the design principles we find common in every visual art: principals like proportions, scale, balance, rhythm, and visual flow. “And then we go into the rule of thirds and the golden ratio which is my favorite thing to talk about in the entire world.” Without realizing it, this is what we admire in her work. Her artistic eye elevates a common concept into something awe-inspiring that evokes the grandeur of an Italian courtyard, or the lush effects of a field of wildflowers. These arrangements are designed methodically and with care to move you in a way that is carefree.

As a teacher and a community member, McLeary does not gate keep. She wants to offer us all access to the act of making. Keep an eye out for her upcoming series of local Market Day Workshops. Flower fans and everyday appreciators can receive her kind-hearted instruction in crafting centerpieces and flower crowns while the local flower farms are in high season.

As Susan McLeary and I wrapped up our conversation, she put the finishing touches on an innovative bouquet that she had been crafting all the while. It is flower heads plucked and thread along strands of pretty copper wire wrapped into a handle. The flowers draped like a weeping willow in an elegant form while held in the hand. “Or,” she showed me. “You can wear it as a head piece.” She draped the light blossoms over her red hair like a living fascinator—a fleeting fashion that evoked the freshness of spring as it flattered her bright blue eyes. Elevated and effortless, it seemed thought and experience came together to spark her imagination that culminated in these new presentations. “I know a piece is worth developing when it is both emotive and meaningful. It must have meaning.” As the lavender petals rest just above her eyebrows, I acknowledged, this dynamic headpiece filled my heart with a playful light.

Susan Mcleary is the author of The Art of Wearable Flowers and Flowers for All: Modern Floral Arrangements for Beauty, Joy, and Mindfulness Every Day. You can find all her workshops and live presentations @susanmcleary.com.

By Hilary Nichols

Everything you would expect, and yet so unexpected. My interdimensional healing appointment with Thirteen Rings was out of this world. When Kelly Campbell welcomed me into her charming studio, the space was as open and conducive as a therapist’s office, but it also swirled with the presence of something more.

Thirteen Rings is in downtown Chelsea in a second level office space. There are candles lit, crystals collected on the tables, and a sage bundle ready to smudge the space. With long vibrant red hair and wearing a lightning bolt sweater, Campell has an obvious kindness and a witchy spark. She is inviting and comfortable in that typical, down-to-earth Midwest way. Campbell might debate that description because her planetary placement is not so earthbound. Rather, in her own eloquent way, she makes it clear that her orientation in time and space is hard to describe in mere words. Her perspective accommodates all-time in present tense, and her access to information comes from places unseen. She is an open channel that is better described by quantum physics than common knowledge. Her knowledge is anything but common, but that’s what makes her so well suited to her craft.

I was introduced to Campell at a fire circle where she honored the four directions and the phase of the moon. When I found out she was an interdimensional healer my curiosity increased. Before finding out what that even meant, I made an appointment. From her website I read, “Together we will discover the root of physical ailments and conditions, transform your physical health, address and heal personal and generational trauma, break ancestral patterns, and transform core beliefs.” I was intrigued.

Campbell knew she was ‘tuned-in’ as early as eight years old, from the number of times adults asked her incredulously, “How did you know that?” Her response, “Because I know,” indicated much about her uncommon access. At a slumber party that year, she was playing with an old-fashioned phone. “When I picked it up, there was a voice on the other side. It said ‘Hello’ like it was expecting me.” This is how Campbell remembers first becoming aware of her otherworldly connection. “But my mom responded just as fast, telling me, “That isn’t possible, and it isn’t true.” That’s when Campbell got the message. The outside world made it clear her connection to the paranormal wasn’t acceptable, and so she shut it down.

Twenty years later she was ready to acknowledge her interest and found a socially acceptable approach to do so. Campbell leaned into her love of astrology and began reading astrological charts professionally. But soon enough it became clear that her reports came from more than the alignment of the stars. She was feeling her client’s pains, and beyond that, she was able to deduce more than physical hindrance, but the emotional story that corresponded. As this became more of a focus of her sessions, she determined that she was working more as a medical intuitive. The work just presented itself.

“This blew me away.” She reported about an experience with a client that was having discomfort in her pelvis. “I asked her what the sensation felt like. And she said it felt cold and dark. That corresponded with what I was tracking,” she said. “That’s when my Somatic Experiencing training came into play,” Campbell told me. Somatic Experiencing® Therapy, as described on the Embody Lab website, was developed by Dr. Peter A Levine. It is described as a naturalistic and neurobiological approach or a body–mind therapy, focused specifically on healing trauma by drawing clients’ awareness to their bodies.”

“It is cold and dark—great,” Campbell exclaimed. “So, I went to seek the void and found that what was missing was with her parents. Her parents had a piece of her that didn’t belong with them; it belonged with her. And so, my guides let me know we are going to move it across this timeline and give it back to her. And along with my guides and archangels, we recovered it.” There is so much to unpack in this recounting, “great” may be an understatement. I think mystifying is a better description. But trying to understand isn’t the goal. I can appreciate her work as I appreciate string theory, without any actual understanding. Instead, I just had to experience it myself.

Campbell made me comfortable with a cup of tea and a little conversation as I settled in for my appointment. And then she asked me why I was there. When I responded, “just curious” she took the lead, asking “Do you have any ailments?” I pointed to a small genetic condition that nagged, and that was all she needed as our access point. Right away she asked about my father. “Is he still with us?” Surprised to hear he had passed, she let me know, “He is so present here, I felt that you two had spoken on the phone today.” That gave me chills. It was with my father that I shared this condition. Of course I had to ask, “How could you know?” Campbell’s smile said it all. “I just know,” was the simple answer. But digging in, I was able to get more. “It is a combination of seeing, feeling, knowing, and internal messages spoken in phrases,” she told me. “If something is out of balance or deregulated, those are the messages that will come through.”

Along with my “well and wise ancestor,” as she referred to my deceased father, and our guide the Archangel Haniel(divine healer of families and relationships) Campbell shifted her focus to the unseen realms. With her eyes closed and hands active, she leaned back as she narrated the action vibrantly, like an animated drama. She told me how they had identified and cut-out old chords and aided me in releasing emotionally based traumas that had wound around my nervous system to exacerbate my physical discomforts.

As an interdimensional healer she channels information through Source and is shown what will be the most healing to that person at that time. “As I align, the guides just begin to show up,” she told me. On her website, she describes her process as working “with archangels and with ancestors through Source. In this way I am able to address ancestral trauma, lineage disruptions, energetic cording from people, places, things, and events—all of these conditions cause significant disruption in our physical and energetic bodies.”

It isn’t easy to describe but Campbell has become comfortable with the indescribable. “I spend most of my time moving through different dimensions and timelines, healing lineage and generational trauma, and clearing the burdens, afflictions, and shame that we hold, individually and collectively.”

At home at her altar is where she spends that time, in a daily practice to keep the conduit clear. She lights candles, picks a tarot card, honors her ancestors framed on the wall, and recognizes the phase of the moon and key planetary alignments that influence each day. Like becoming fluent in a foreign language, it takes devotion, and she is clearly devoted to sharing this gift far and wide.

For greater outreach, Campbell is conducting a series of group sessions to clear commonly held concerns. There will be group meetings for each course: Family, Health, and Money held over Zoom. This is a way to benefit from this work more comfortably from your own home and more deeply over four sessions.

“The North node indicates one’s dharma, life path, and evolution. It is where you are headed.” Campbell described to me from her star chart. “My north node is ruled by Uranus which reflects qualities of innovation. And Uranus has thirteen rings, so that is where the business name comes from.” With her interdimensional healing energy, and empowered by the planets, Kelly Campbell shares with her Thirteen Ring clients, “You will come out of this space a healthier, more powerful, more joyful, more present, and more authentic you.” I am astonished to feel the effects—relieved of the ailment, lighter with a new clarity to call on, and grateful to have had the visit from my dear departed dad as well.

Learn more about Kelly Campbell at thirteenrings.com.