My Glamelia Bouquet

I have been getting a lot of requests for tips on how to make a glamelia or where to get a glamelia or hey can you make me a glamelia? So I thought I would actually make a small sample for my friend to truly see if she wants one and how long it would take me to make one.

First of all, I posted about this last year http://kugab.blogspot.com/search/label/Glamelia

I made a true glamelia with gladioula petals. After all this is what it is. A composite bouquet or corsage made up of glad petals. The bouquet was made more poplar by KatherineHeigl when she used it as her wedding bouquet.

But from a book I have had for some time now, it is actually called a Malmaison Rose.
Here's a short excerpt from my book:
"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."

So it had instructions on how to make one, how its constructed, and the scary part is that it warns that when your hands get too hot, you must take a break or you will damage the petals and have to start again.
excuse me?
How serious can this be right?
Well........let's just say I mean to make a large sample but said "oh hell no" after 2.5 hours of wiring..........

I made a simple red bouquet using only bacara roses.
Perfect for a classic Red and brown themed wedding.
Like by brooch??? I can't get enough brooches in my hot little hand :P


Then I took this bad girl apart. The bouquet pictured above took 24 roses.
Small sized for a bridal bouquet I think but you take the dress and bride and make the bouquet to scale right? So I thought I would show you the size of this glamelia bouquet I made.
Here it is next to a regular rose.

Here it is with my daughter holding it.

Here is my glamelia in all her glory. :)

The Skinny:

It took for freaking ever. After 2 and half hours of wiring I wanted to call my friend and just say
"GUUURRRRLLLLLL"

Why you ask?
First of all, you must tear apart these roses and then pick out the petals that are relatively the same in size and shape AND color. I stress color because you can see where in my flower I used petals that were the right size and shape, but too red. So it's not the flash or anything, they were just truly a lighter shade than the rest. For a sample it's ok, even for the day of it would be alright, but I am a bit picky and it's irking me that I left it that way.

Secondly, when you get going you have to be careful when you are wiring because I cannot tell you how many petals I ripped apart, the best method for me was a hairpin technique then carefully pressure where the wire meets the petals. Even then I would wire two or three tear one, wire two or five, tear two in a row.

Third- they were right, if your hands get hot,. you do tend to manhandle the petals and make more mistakes so you have to take breaks. I would wire like 10 -15 then I would take a breather then, do like 30, then stop for a minute to unclench my fingers.

I would not want to do this with any other color. ESPECIALLY white because white bruise easily and some people still believe the only way to prevent this is my using white latex gloves when designing with white roses. I personally don't do it, but I know I would not be able to wire rose petals with gloves on and if a red small glamelai took me almost 3 hours from start to finish, then a large white one would take at least 6-8 hours I think.

The deep red hides, blemishes and its pretty easy to cover up mistakes once you get going as long as you space them right.


I left it out all day today in this vase.
I'm kinda diggin how this looks, but not enough to make these as centerpiece.
So don't even think about asking!!! lol



In the end, I think it will last through the day ok if you use a small foam bouquet holder as your mechanic and are super duper careful all day long. There is no water source so I would say this is ok for like winter, early spring weddings. MAYBE fall? I don't know about the summer or in areas where flowers will tend to wilt whether they are in water or not. Like a poor Savannah bride who emailed me about this bouquet. I felt bad for her and suggested she make a silk one because if it's done right, no one will be able to tell!


This is what was left. all the little petals...poor babies.

Hope you like my glamelia/malmaison rose bouquet!