Memories in bloom:
Pressing memories with mom

By Amelia Perez

 

Flower pressing: Childhood memories and art in handmade soaps.

I clearly remember a bright spring morning when I was just eight years old. My mother, with her eternal passion for plants, was watering and caring for the pots in our small patio. Suddenly, she called to me in her sweet voice: "Meli, please bring me the little basket that is on the sink."

We start with the first flowers of the year, daffodils and begonias placed on tracing paper for pressing.

I stopped what I was doing and went for the basket, which was overflowing with fresh, colorful geranium flowers. “Sit here for a moment,” she said as she walked back into the house. She returned with volume “M” of the Larousse encyclopedia that had been lying on the bookshelf in the living room for as long as I could remember. At first, I wondered what she had done to deserve studying on a Saturday, but I soon understood her intention.

Carefully, my mother separated the petals of a flower and placed it between the pages of the book. Then, with a gesture of her face, she indicated that I should do the same. Thus, the first bouquet was trapped between the printed words, and the book returned to its place on the shelf, between the "L" and the "N."

Detail of yellow daffodils, begonias and marigold leaves.

The years passed and I forgot that day in the courtyard with my mother until, at the age of 12, I was given a school assignment about the man they called "the doctor of princes, the prince of doctors", Moses Maimonides, a great Sephardic Jewish philosopher, born in my native Córdoba almost nine centuries ago. When I opened volume "M" of the encyclopedia, the memory of that spring morning caught me again, reliving those moments intensely. The flower, now dried and preserved between the pages, had acquired a new meaning. It was no longer just a flower, it was a fragment of my childhood, a memory made into art.

Before and after about fifteen days of pressing.

Composition of purple and yellow violets together with our natural olive oil and aloe vera soap .

Collage of the travel soap dish , red chard leaf, heuchera leaf, tulip leaf, millet leaf, and muscari next to our natural olive oil and aloe vera soap .

Over time, I kept saving flowers in books and my interest in pressing flowers grew. A visit to a friend's antique shop led me to discover books with centuries of history, in which French botanists had immortalized hundreds of flowers with their meticulous descriptions handwritten in delicate calligraphy.

"Positive and negative space" compositions with helleborus flower and natural olive oil and aloe vera soap .

Recently, with the help of my husband, we built two more sophisticated flower presses. Although I still keep some of my treasures between the pages of a book, the process is still the same. Between wooden boards and screws, I arrange the flowers between blotting papers, applying pressure for a few weeks. Once the flowers are dry, I make compositions that mix the natural beauty of the flowers with my own creations, such as my handmade soaps .

Collage of our natural olive oil and aloe vera soap , red chard leaf, tulip , millet leaf, and muscari.

I feel enormous satisfaction in sharing these first compositions and reliving the charm of those moments of my childhood with my beloved mother.

Treasures of a shared childhood

In the pages of childhood, among the pressed flowers and books that hold whispers of the past, we find some of the sources of inspiration for our handmade soaps . Each aroma that is released, each texture that is recreated, transports us to those moments full of magic and discovery. It is in this atmosphere of nostalgia and love for nature where we find the essence of our creativity, formulating and making soaps that not only cleanse the skin, but also caress the soul with aromatic memories and textures that, with eyes closed, awaken emotions stored in time.