​Italian Inspired ‘Floral Carpets’ Made with Flyboy Naturals Petals

Italian Inspired ‘Floral Carpets’ Made with Flyboy Naturals Petals

When our dear customer Amy visited Spello, an ancient town in central Italy, a few years ago she was awestruck by the beauty of ‘le infiorate’ or floral carpets. The floral carpets are created in preparation for Corpus Domini also known as The Feast of Corpus Christi taking place on the ninth Sunday after Easter. Thousands of people work to create the ‘carpets’ made of flowers along the narrow town’s streets to honor the passage of the Blessed Sacrament carried in procession by the bishop on Sunday morning. The result is a unique pathway of incredible floral creation rich in color and scent.

Here is a look at some of Spello’s “Le Infiorate del Corpus Domini” that just took place a few weeks ago on May 29th, 2016. The tradition began with throwing flowers and has evolved into the creation of these rich flower carpets. Spello’s tradition dates back to 1831 when it was first documented in the Municipal archives.

Photo Credits: Comune Di Spello as seen on their Facebook Page

Photo Credits: Comune Di Spello as seen on their Facebook Page

The work goes on all night with an estimated 2,000 people of all ages involved in the work and by the next morning, the streets of Spello are covered in a multi-colored, perfumed carpet. Once the Sunday procession has passed by, the streets reopen and the beautiful compositions dissolve into the air. There’s a wonderful time-lapse video showing these works being created available here: http://infioratespello.it/ Here’s a few more images from Spello 2016 showing some of the design and layout process that goes into each piece:

Amy was so inspired by what she saw that she decided to bring this idea back to her home parish of St. Timothy Catholic Church in Chantilly, Virginia. She worked last year with the Catholic School’s Mission Commission After School Club to design and create two floral carpets and this year she is expanding and continuing the tradition with 3 floral carpets. Amy hopes to add more and more each year. She’s delighted with the continued growth and appreciation of the work and even dreams of creating floral carpets that are as splendid as Spello’s in the years to come!

Here’s a look at the incredible designs that Amy’s after school club created last year:

Photo Credits: Submitted by Amy Powers

For the 2016 celebration, Amy sent us the following three images that she wanted to recreate using Flyboy Naturals freeze-dried flower petals:

Amy had already done her research in selecting the Flyboy Naturals freeze-dried petals that would best fit each design. For the rosary image, the petals were paired with whole fresh rose blooms for each of the rosary beads and Flyboy Naturals petals for the background and border. Here’s a sneak peek at what they came up with this year. Amy’s going to send us more photos soon and we look forward to seeing how their 2016 designs turned out:

Photo Credit: http://sttimothyparish.org/corpus-christi-procession/

Photo Credit: St. Timothy’s Catholic Church as seen on their Facebook Page