People have always admired the beauty of nature and were always trying to decorate their houses using flowers. As we all know flowers in a vase die in about a week or two, so they started to attempt at mimicking the beauty of nature using artificial material.
Hundreds of years ago throughout most of Europe mainly in Italy France and south of Germany, there was a form of craft called Klosterarbeiten which means "Monastery Work" in German. This craft came to Malta with the arrival of the Knights of St. John and formed part of our culture. The Maltese kept the technique but they could not always find the materials that were normally used for Klosterarbeiten so they had to use different yet similar material. They gave this craft a Maltese signature and began to call it ‘ganutell’, derived from the Italian word ‘canutilja’ (Ganutell.com, unknown).
Ganutell is the traditional Maltese craft of making artificial flowers using wires of silver or gold twisted with colourful threads of rayon floss or satin, beads, and pearls. Two pieces of coloured thread and one piece of copper core wire are connected to the hook of the spindle, also known as ‘magħżel’ in Maltese. The threads and the wire are twisted together to create what is called a prepared thread. The ganutell flowers are made petal by petal and are connected together with floral tape to keep petals in place. The ganutell flowers were usually displayed in either a frame or in a ‘bozza’ which is a glass dome. These flowers were then used to decorate a painting or statue of a saint in the local churches and monasteries.
With time, this craft evolved, people practicing it started creating things other than flowers. Some examples that I found were a swan, a butterfly and some also contributed to fashion by creating pairs of earrings. During the last twenty years it has also become more popular to decorate Holy Communion candles by putting artificial ganutell wheat, grapes, and flowers. It was also common to see brides headdresses decorated with ganutell flowers.
Ganutell is not the only traditional craft that requires metal wires. There is also Filigree which is a jewelry metalwork using gold or silver. This craft came to Malta probably during the eighteenth century but it has been practiced by ancient Egyptians since 3,000 BC. It is an honour that during the Great Exhibition of 1851 the Maltese filigree was brought to the attention of the European public. It uses a combination of thin and thick wires and beads. Gold and silver ingots are pressed and stretched several times to produce the wires of different thicknesses. The thicker wires are used to create the outline skeleton and the thinner wires are twisted and together with the beads are used to fill the skeleton. If the craftsmen is happy with the design everything is soldered together to create a beautiful artistic design. After the skeleton of the design is filled in the product is then dipped in certain chemicals to remove black oxidisation caused by the soldering process and left to dry (https://www.maltaproducts.com/malta_filigree/, unknown). The final procedure is to polish the product, using a Dremel rotary tool, to give it a shiny look. Filigree is used for both decoration and to make jewellery. Nowadays filigree is mostly used to make souvenirs which are very popular with tourists that visit our country. These souvenirs are mostly by Maltese traditional objects like the Maltese cross and the ‘luzzu’.
In my research I also noticed that Ganutell was mostly crafted by women whereas filigree was mostly crafted by men. This is not the case nowadays because in order to keep these crafts alive groups of people of any age and gender joined together to teach these traditional crafts.
References
Kerr, M., 2012. Il-Ganutell. Kullana Kulturali.
Maltaproducts.com, unknown. Made in Malta Products - Filigree Malta. [online] Available at: <https://www.maltaproducts.com/malta_filigree/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Menhennet, J. and Cohen, C., unknown. Ganutell - a beautiful Maltese handcraft. [online] Ganutell.com. Available at: <http://www.ganutell.com/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Hundreds of years ago throughout most of Europe mainly in Italy France and south of Germany, there was a form of craft called Klosterarbeiten which means "Monastery Work" in German. This craft came to Malta with the arrival of the Knights of St. John and formed part of our culture. The Maltese kept the technique but they could not always find the materials that were normally used for Klosterarbeiten so they had to use different yet similar material. They gave this craft a Maltese signature and began to call it ‘ganutell’, derived from the Italian word ‘canutilja’ (Ganutell.com, unknown).
Ganutell is the traditional Maltese craft of making artificial flowers using wires of silver or gold twisted with colourful threads of rayon floss or satin, beads, and pearls. Two pieces of coloured thread and one piece of copper core wire are connected to the hook of the spindle, also known as ‘magħżel’ in Maltese. The threads and the wire are twisted together to create what is called a prepared thread. The ganutell flowers are made petal by petal and are connected together with floral tape to keep petals in place. The ganutell flowers were usually displayed in either a frame or in a ‘bozza’ which is a glass dome. These flowers were then used to decorate a painting or statue of a saint in the local churches and monasteries.
With time, this craft evolved, people practicing it started creating things other than flowers. Some examples that I found were a swan, a butterfly and some also contributed to fashion by creating pairs of earrings. During the last twenty years it has also become more popular to decorate Holy Communion candles by putting artificial ganutell wheat, grapes, and flowers. It was also common to see brides headdresses decorated with ganutell flowers.
Ganutell is not the only traditional craft that requires metal wires. There is also Filigree which is a jewelry metalwork using gold or silver. This craft came to Malta probably during the eighteenth century but it has been practiced by ancient Egyptians since 3,000 BC. It is an honour that during the Great Exhibition of 1851 the Maltese filigree was brought to the attention of the European public. It uses a combination of thin and thick wires and beads. Gold and silver ingots are pressed and stretched several times to produce the wires of different thicknesses. The thicker wires are used to create the outline skeleton and the thinner wires are twisted and together with the beads are used to fill the skeleton. If the craftsmen is happy with the design everything is soldered together to create a beautiful artistic design. After the skeleton of the design is filled in the product is then dipped in certain chemicals to remove black oxidisation caused by the soldering process and left to dry (https://www.maltaproducts.com/malta_filigree/, unknown). The final procedure is to polish the product, using a Dremel rotary tool, to give it a shiny look. Filigree is used for both decoration and to make jewellery. Nowadays filigree is mostly used to make souvenirs which are very popular with tourists that visit our country. These souvenirs are mostly by Maltese traditional objects like the Maltese cross and the ‘luzzu’.
In my research I also noticed that Ganutell was mostly crafted by women whereas filigree was mostly crafted by men. This is not the case nowadays because in order to keep these crafts alive groups of people of any age and gender joined together to teach these traditional crafts.
References
Kerr, M., 2012. Il-Ganutell. Kullana Kulturali.
Maltaproducts.com, unknown. Made in Malta Products - Filigree Malta. [online] Available at: <https://www.maltaproducts.com/malta_filigree/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].
Menhennet, J. and Cohen, C., unknown. Ganutell - a beautiful Maltese handcraft. [online] Ganutell.com. Available at: <http://www.ganutell.com/> [Accessed 13 Jan. 2016].