About the artist
Who is Blossoms by Angelica
Angelica was born in Mexico in the state of Puebla in a town called Chiautla de Tapia in 1983. Raised in the United States since the age of two, her parents instilled in her their Mexican roots and culture. Mexico is always in her heart and she takes pride in her origins. Belonging to two completely different cultures she practices American and Mexicans customs equally in her beliefs, cuisine and art. Angelica is very free spirited and as a child she liked art, music, poetry, literature, holistic medicine, nature, history, culinary arts and holds strong to her spiritual believes. Best of all is that all these "hobbies" from her childhood join into one artistic passion … Gelatin Art. She discovered the artistic gelatins in the spring of 2008 by her father who, knowing that she loved to practice on pastries, bought and brought home some of these incredible desserts. She was so in love with these jellies that she did not know whether to eat it or save it, but such was her curiosity she decided to try the beautiful gelatin which unfortunately had no taste in her opinion, not knowing if the dessert characteristics were indeed as so she began to investigate this art on the internet, but found nothing that could guide her at that time. Her father tracked down the street vendors whom he had purchased those gelatins from and asked if they could teach Angelica on how to prepare them. But the vendors refused to teach her. Suddenly she understood that this art was very competitive among homemakers and street vendors. So, the only thing left for Angelica to do was to experiment and speculate. First she practiced a homemade recipe and then tested with different utensils to make cuts in the clear gelatin until she was creating and discovering several things, such as when the pistils were mistakenly circled above, this looked like the baby's breath to her, learning from this mistake that could give a touch of elegance and a more natural look to her flowers, she began by adding the baby's breath technique. When she published her first creations online in May of 2008, she began receiving numerous calls inquiring as how to make these flowers. Seeing that she could succeed with her creations she devoted to practice and create and feel safer going with this gelatin art field. She later became an instructor later that year. Thus, she began this career in 2008, choosing the name "Blossoms by Angelica" for her business. As an instructor not only does she make surrealistic gelatin art, but also markets her own products for the preparation of this culinary delicacies. She is also the creator of the "Gubia-needle" tools (Jelly tools) that are specially hand crafted by the artist herself to facilitate the elaboration for this encapsulated gelatin flowers, which are available on this website. So, this is how Blossoms By Angelica was born and though gelatin artistry began as a hobby for her, she became an instructor of this art at the age of 24, she always has kept her passion for this art and is always trying to innovate and obtain more knowledge for her students. After more than 10 years and counting of her career she has develop intricate and complex details on her work that has set a spotlight with the media and other publications. Her secret has always been to see things from another angle, have love for nature and most of all have patience and dedication to her students. That is why in her teachings she tells her students: "Your gelatin is your blank canvas, so create!"
Angelica lives in Chicago with her three children. She runs her own gelatin artistry web store. Angelica has been featured in many publications such as the Edible Artist Network Magazine (Winter 2013) and at a national Day Time TV Show, Pickler and Ben just to name a few. Angelica teaches gelatin artistry in Chicago, Illinois by scheduled appointment and programmed group classes. She is well known world-wide from her YouTube videos on how to create elaborate gelatin art. She encourages her followers to stay active by offering a raffle giveaway on social media every month as a token of her appreciation of all the support she has received from her audience. Since 2008, Blossoms by Angelica Gelatin Artistry is not only a local business but has grown overseas. Blossoms by Angelica has shipped to Mexico, Canada, Central America, South America, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Vietnam, Israel, Europe and the Philippines. If you haven't followed Blossoms By Angelica, do so!
What is Gelatin Artistry?
"Gelatin Artistry" as Gelatin Artist Angelica calls it, is edible art made out of beef/pork clear gelatin or with a vegetarian version jelly made out of konjac root. This gelatin art is a clear, empty, tangible space that you can eat! As weird as it may sound, gelatin art is 100 percent edible dessert that has flavor, sweetness, and that citrus that makes your mouth water and not only that! It's like painting in 3D but instead with a brush, you are using a tool called Gubia-Needles. Gubia-Needles have not always been used for the elaboration of such art. As far as the history of this art has been tracked down, not much information is out there, just stories of the veteran Gelatin Artists that have been teaching this art for years. But what we know about gelatin desserts is that they have existed since way back in the medieval times. But referring to this art, it is speculated between the eldest artists that this method of elaborating artistic gelatins had possibly come from the catholic nuns in Mexico City. Now these nuns traveled from Spain and other places from Europe to Mexico bringing all those delicacies and culinary recipes with them. That is how Mexico has developed their gastronomic abilities from the Pros. Many nuns in the convents earn their living selling sweets and confections. Their recipes come from the times of the Romans and Moors, which they have preserved over the ages. In medieval times the sweet delicacies they now sell could only be tasted by royalty, or rich donors to the convents. Sweets have been prepared by nuns who have worked in convent kitchens preparing some real treats. One of the most famous alcoholic drinks ever made by nuns was the "Rompope" an eggnog like beverage. It's believed to have been originally made in the convents of the city of Puebla, Mexico. How can we ever not think that nuns could have develop something so astonishing as a decorated gelatin dessert! They are masters of the confection. It is said that gelatin was originally made from extracting the collagen from beef hide and from pig too. This broth have to be boil numerous times in order to remove the impurities and obtain the clear gel which back then was used for making "aspics" a gelatin made with vegetables and other condiments. Back to the gelatin art, it's believed that this artistic gelatins once started as been decorated with nuts and fruits on top of clear gelatin by forming flowers. Other version of this gelatins was by using the eggnog. By pouring eggnog on top of the clear gelatin and pricking the gelatin to let the liquid sip in and forming a flower was another way. Through out time the technics for the elaboration of this delicacies have been evolving either in the recipe or the tools that facilitate on forming each petal. The forming of different flowers intricate each detail from a pistil, baby's breath to a full petal. Not even to mention the colorful combination of pigments to add that realistic touch. Gelatin Artistry as we gelatin artists believe was initiated by nuns that taught homemakers back in the days (approx. 60-80 yrs.) as a form of income. From forming shapes inside clear gelatin as flowers to pricking and cutting with sharp objects such as hypodermic needles to now in days by using a Gubia-needle to make this art so much easy and more realistic, we can say that we will never know who was the actual inventor or creator of this three dimensional art. Many elders claim to have been the original creator of such art but none of who ever claimed have any proof nor would we think He / She would still be alive. Gelatin art has become so creative and complex on designs that artists don't just limit on 3D flowers but go far beyond the basic such as making 3D colorful birds, butterflies, insects, mammals, scenery and human faces. Gelatin Artistry is not only creating figures suspended in clear gelatin but there's other techniques such as water color, encaustic with edible pigments, intaglio, molding and pipping as if it was buttercream to decorate a beautiful work of art. Gelatin art is very versatile to work with in many combination with cakes and fruits and that is what makes this gelatins very unique and delicious.
What is a Gubia-needle?
When Gelatin Artist Angelica started her journey in spring of 2008 on gelatin art, as she practice to perfect her creations she began to sell this desserts in parks, knocking door to door and churches. As she became more popular with her desserts, it attracted more customers and she started catering for events. Flooded by orders she couldn't keep up with making each gelatin dessert with one hypodermic needle and that lead her to start improvising with cut out metal shapes and a glass dropper. That speed up the process but still she felt that she needed a faster way to fulfill her orders from customers. At the same time the artist was offered a position to teach at a cake and candy decorating supply store two months after embarking this career as a gelatin artist, Cakewalk Chicago located in the south side in Beverly opened the doors for this artist and never did she thought that she was stepping into a new world. As Angelica started teaching people from different ages from children to elders she noticed that some students had a hard time having a steady hand. She knew she had to go back to the drawing board to start designing a tool that could be easily used by the students and that could be an aid to a quicker way of elaborating this gelatin art. On June of 2010 Angelica completed her first tool which she name "Gubia-Aguja". Gubia comes from "Gulbia" in Latin. Which is translated as chisel. Chisel is a metal tool used by carpenters to carve on to wood and "Aguja" in Spanish mean needle. The combination between this two words make up the word Gubia-needle. A tool made out of two other tools attached together to make two functions at the same time. As the artist began to work with the Gubia-needle she got inspired by nature to bring out more designs of different petals and leaves. As she perfected her vision of a very important tool she believe that this would be an impact to the development and evolution of such art, The Gelatin Artist release the Gubia-needles to the public for sell in her website on September of 2011. Till this day the Artist count with more than 150 essential designs, some available to the public and some still pending to be release to the public soon. Angelica is eager to show the world what this art is all about. Her talent and creativity has taken her to the spotlight of many exhibitions, displays, publications and the media. The artist counts with a YouTube Channel where it's bein a learning place for student abroad. She believes that this culinary art is not about who got artistic talent because you don't need any artistic ability to learn gelatin art it's more than art itself. It's therapy for the mind, it's a way of income for the homemakers that are looking to develop a business while taking care of their family at home. Most of all it's a way to bond with someone that shares the same interest and passion as you. What other way can you share something sweet and surrealistic by eating one of this amazing gelatin desserts.
Help is appreciated to keep uploading free courses
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals by providing free tutorials in our social platforms. Your generous donation is greatly appreciated .
