About

Hi, I'm Charina. 

Thank you for taking time to visit my shop and reading a little bit about me.

I’m the creative behind Orchid & Pine, a botanical design studio nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains.

I’m a multi-passionate individual with a background in Fashion Design & Yoga. I pursued Fashion Design at the California College of the Arts. While studying design, I began selling my creations to local San Francisco shops. My signature product was a collection of faux fur scarves with a hidden pocket for essentials like cash, keys, and ID – a stylish accessory for a night out in the foggy city. It kept you warm and looking fly all without the need of a cumbersome handbag. After the initial success, I launched my women’s wear label, Blithe Design, post-graduation.

Along the way in my fashion journey, I fell in love with the practice of yoga. The feeling of peace and wellbeing that I experienced on the mat was always such a reprieve on the most challenging days as a mom-preneur. In 2008, I shifted focus to deepen my yoga practice and explore the world. In 2011 I earned my 200 YTT teaching certificate from Avalon Yoga and continued to pursue further studies at the Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India while teaching.

These experiences paved the way for the evolution and core principles of Orchid & Pine Studio. It is a creative sanctuary for me and my team to bridge the exploration between design, nature and wellbeing.

The journey of Orchid & Pine commenced with our first creation – the Earth Vessel, inspired by a kindhearted gesture in 2022. At that time, I was in search for flowers for a peace ceremony gathering. Upon hearing about my search for flowers in the middle of winter, a generous soul gifted me a bouquet of flowers as an offering.

At the time, my heart had been feeling heavy. Internal and external world conflicts were taking a toll on my soul. While I sat in my car on my way to the peace ceremony, I gazed upon these flowers and felt a huge release of tension from my body. Like a boulder was being lifted from my heart. I could breathe fully again. While have always loved flowers, it was in this moment that I realized how much of a healing presence they have always been in my life.

After the peace ceremony, I gathered some of the flowers from the altar and dried them. I placed those flowers into a mini vessel with rose quartz - the ultimate gem for love - and left a note for the woman who gifted me the bouquet. Since then, we have made more connections and developed a slow and quiet friendship.

Flowers possess a language of their own hearts; if we pause to listen, we can feel our connection to their melody. They serve as a reminder that we are fundamentally intertwined with Nature, not separate from it.

My mission is to infuse daily life with the magic of botanicals responsibly which include growing and harvesting most of our herbs, plants, and flowers directly from our garden. What we are unable to grow ourselves, we source from local agriculture, supporting and giving back to our community of growers.

From sight, touch, smell and taste (coming soon) - our botanical products are created in the same spirit as the beautiful stranger who opened my heart. May they bring a smile to your face, lift your spirit and reassure you that you are where you belong.

With love,

Charina