Glamelia ( born Glamelia ) is a type of floristic work that arose under this name presumably in the second half of the 19th century. Initially, it denoted a specific type of work, as a result of which one man-made flower in the form of a camellia was created from the petals of a gladiolus. From the parts of these two words, glavelia arose the name of an unusual kind of work. Glamelia was used as decoration for hats, dresses, as well as wedding bouquets.
The emergence of this novelty floristry is due to the extraordinary popularity of camellias, which, after the release of the novel “Lady with Camellias” by Alexander Dumas Jr. and the creation of Giuseppe Verdi based on the novel “La Traviata”, became not only a beautiful exotic flower, but also a symbol of strong feelings and a tragic, sacrificial, but beautiful love. Camellia has become a favorite flower of many socialite ladies and illustrious actresses.
Camellias in Europe spread from the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, and large-flowered, strong-double varieties were extremely popular, in contrast to the varieties that were popular in their homeland, in Japan. Just such - large and densely terry varieties at first imitated glamelia. The cause of the laborious and complex type of work was the consistently high demand for flowers, combined with the seasonality of camellia bloom. In addition, from the petals it was possible to create works of any size and splendor, while natural flowers did not reach more than 10-12 cm in diameter.
In the same period, but it is quite possible that much earlier, there are varieties of such works created from rose petals and imitating huge roses, as well as works from petals of lilies and other flowers. Such composite flowers from rose petals were also called malmaison rose (Malmaison roses), carmen roses (Carmen rose), rose duchesse (ducal roses), from other petals - carmen lilies, duchesse lilies (ducal lilies), composite flowers (prefabricated flowers) or fantasy flowers.
The Malmaison rose is a name that suggests that fantasy works from rose petals existed much earlier than the name glamelia appeared, which is now universally applied to all similar types of works. This name is associated with the castle Malmaison 20 km from Paris, which has a very long history, but associated with flowers only once.
Since 1799, this estate belonged to Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte , and it remained in the possession of Josephine after a divorce from the emperor. In the same castle, she died in 1814. The castle during its stay in Josephine was famous for its magnificent collection of exotic plants and animals, as well as a huge collection of garden roses. It was in the Josephine greenhouse that blooming camellias were first introduced in France at the beginning of the 19th century, before that they were considered decorative deciduous tea trees. After the death of Josephine, according to her will, all property, including flower collections, were sold out, and money was transferred to charity. It is unlikely that the name "Malmaison roses" arose more than half a century after the disappearance of the collection of flowers from the castle. Most likely, they were created at the beginning of the 19th century, even before the name glamelia appeared.
Thus, this type of work repeatedly confirms the validity of the statement that "everything new is well forgotten old ." To find earlier evidence and real authors of these ideas seems extremely difficult due to the inaccessibility of ancient books on floristry.
At the beginning of the 20th century, glamories were undergoing another revival, mainly thanks to Constance Spry , the most respected British florist who improved their assembly technique and popularized the ideas that she had the opportunity to draw from an old book on gardening and floristry, presented to her as a child . This is mentioned in the section of the site of the Museum of Design , dedicated to Constance. She especially loved imitations of huge roses because of her extraordinary love for the prototype flower.
The role of Constance Spray in the revival of glammel is also evidenced by a book of a later period, which is also a bibliographic book for a long time.
Malmaison roses, based on the early Victorian traditional technique of creating huge lush roses from the petals of many excellent roses, were perfected by Constance Spray. Extremely popular in the 40s and 50s, Malmaison roses were constantly made for ladies attending public balls. ”
Original text"The malmaison rose was perfected by Constance Spry and based on an early victorian tradition-creating an overblown rose form the petals of many perfect roses. All the rage in the 40's and 50's ,. malmaison roses were made regularly for women attending society balls. ”
In 1938, Constance Spray, who had already written several books by that time and became famous both for her unusual views on floristry and the design of royal events, was invited to open a store in New York, USA. With a visit to the Constance Spray of the United States, glamelium begins to spread widely in this country, which lasted about two decades in the 40-50s of the 20th century. Works of this kind were very polarized, but after some time, by the end of the 20th century, glammel and all their varieties were completely forgotten.
As a result of these events, the classification of wedding bouquets in the book of the very authoritative contemporary German florist Wally Klett , published in 2003, “Creative Wedding” (“WEDDING OF CREATIONS” - ​​“HOCHZEIT DER CREATIONEN”), appears as classic glamor (the characteristic material for which she calls tulips or green leaves), and the American bouquet, or the bouquet in the American style, which is performed similarly to glamelia from the gladiolus or lily petals, can be round or oval, symmetrical or with offset center.
The last time glamelis returned was at the very end of the 20th century - the beginning of the 21st century, when they were reborn - again as a completely new and unusual kind of work. It is difficult to say exactly which of the florists "brought them to life," but one of the first books, which included a large number of works from petals (still a small assortment of roses and lilies), was a book by the Finnish florist Jouni Seppanen "Innovations" - "New Products", released in 2001. The glamelia presented in the book at that time was a complete novelty for most florists and buyers.
A huge contribution to the revival of glammel was made by prominent florists - [Daniel Ost] ( Daniël Ost ), [Ellie Lin] ( Elly Lin ), [Robert Kune] ( Robert Koene ), [Jouni Seppänen], and many others , famous and little-known florists.
From the time of the next return, the range of glamellas has expanded greatly. During this period, the center of special popularity of these works became Europe and, to an even greater extent, Eastern Europe, mainly Russia, Ukraine with their rapidly developing floristry. The prerequisites for this lie both in the interest that has arisen for the unusual type of work and in the technical conditions - with the advent of modern types of glue, new, more effective ways to quickly create them have become available. The popularity of glamlia was also influenced by the factor that they allow creating unusual works from ordinary and affordable materials, allowing florists to expand the range of services.
In the Russian language, new words arose to denote separate, already quite large glammel groups, by analogy with the original compound word. Rosamelia - glamelia from rose petals (a variety of techniques, forms and types of work). Liliamelia - glamelia from the petals of lilies (also many variants of techniques and forms), and the like neologisms. These new words are gradually spreading into other languages.
If in Europe classical techniques of working with petals — mounting, hairpin, winding, glue — are becoming more widespread, then in countries less limited by classical education, original versions of techniques for glamellae assembly arise. For example, a quick way to assemble rosamels on sticks and toothpicks by Alexander Bermyakov, a famous Russian florist.
It must be emphasized that the use of the term “glamelia technique” is completely wrong and erroneous. There are many techniques for creating various glamorous, the word denotes a certain type of work.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the name glamelia has been used as a generalized name for a group of works of the most diverse kind - from imitations of a single flower in a variety of forms from one or more types of individual flowers, parts or elements of flowers and plants, to all kinds of planar works - tablecloths, umbrellas, wraps and many other items covered with flower petals.