Flowers and DecorationsLivornoCollesalvetti
There are flowers that wither and flowers that light up. Demetra Popa makes the second kind: lamps, chandeliers and giant roses shaped petal by petal in a house in Collesalvetti, the same house where her two children are growing up. It all began during lockdown, from a promise: to always be there, a hug away. Today that promise lights up living rooms across half of Europe.
Home workshop in Collesalvetti (LI) · on Etsy since 2025 · ships across Europe and beyond
Some businesses are born of capital, others of a warehouse. This one was born in a house during lockdown, from a mother who already had the style and not yet the craft, a three-year-old boy, a video found by chance and a sheet of crêpe paper.
GlowBlooms is all contained in its name: blooms that light up. Demetra Popa makes them in a house in Collesalvetti, between the kitchen and the work table, and from there she sends them to Berlin, to Paris, and anywhere someone wants a spring that does not end, and that comes on in the evening.
The world stops, and in the Popa house there is a three-year-old boy and a woman with fifteen years of work behind her. «I have to do something», she tells herself: she finds a video about working with crêpe paper, orders the material, clears the table. Out comes a small rose, then a giant rose, then the discovery that her scale is the large one — whole installations, not single flowers.
Six years later, from that same table, the chandeliers for Germany will set off.
Demetra studies the masters of giant flowers from around the world — this art has schools in many countries — takes in their techniques and brings them where she needs them: measure after measure, petal after petal, she works out a shape entirely her own.
«In the end my flower was born, with a shape, a style and finishes that don't follow nature's perfection. It's imperfect, just like me. But that's exactly why it's unique, authentic and beautiful.»
It is the moment when an artisan begins to sign what she makes. Every petal of her pieces has been shaped by hand, one at a time, ever since — and the flower that comes out is hers, recognisable, nobody else's.
The technical turning point has a name few people know: Isolon. It began as a building material — an expanded polyethylene that insulates houses from cold and noise — but in a thinner, glossier, more malleable formula it becomes a petal. Demetra chose it for a practical reason: it can be cleaned with a cloth, and it stands up to time and to hands. To the eye it looks as delicate as silk; to the touch it is surprisingly tough.
A material invented to keep the heat inside houses has changed craft in her hands: now it lights them up. And colour is a craft within the craft: shades and gradations laid on by hand, petal by petal, from sage green to black, from yellow to powder pink — with white still the most requested, but never the only one.
Demetra could have looked for a steady job, from morning to evening. The reason she did not is hers to give: «I was terrified of the thought of not being able to be at home with my children.» Two children, and the certainty that the moments when a child needs you cannot be booked in advance: they come when they come.
So the workshop is home, and the day is built to measure, like her pieces: on one side a petal is being shaped, on the other a fork is being passed across the table; the hours are «very long, full, all different». That is the advantage of having built a job of your own: she sets the hours herself, and when a hug is needed she is always there.
In 2025 the passion becomes an online shop, and in December a registered artisan business. A year after the shop opened, her creations are lit up across half of Europe: Germany and France in the lead, the white chandelier as the most requested piece — in Italy, on the other hand, table lamps sell better. And the shop is only the visible part of the work: alongside it run the direct orders, the bespoke commissions and the installations, which pass through no shop window at all.
The reviews tell the rest: «a beautiful work of art», parcels «prepared and wrapped with care», and a customer who asked for her flower «a little softer» — and had it remade exactly like that. Demetra answers every review herself. To one customer who found the material too soft she explained, politely, that this softness is the choice that makes her shapes possible.
Alongside the lamps lives the second craft: installations. Giant flowers for ceremonies, sets for parties, decorations for spaces and shop windows — made to measure, designed for the place and for the occasion. It is the part of the work you see in her reels: arrangements that turn a hall into a place where something lovely has just happened.
When you ask her what sets her apart, she does not talk about products: she talks about «wanting to make something entirely my own». And she is already clear about the next step: a space of her own, full of flowers and creations. And inside that space, one day, a course designed for people living the same life she lives.
Because she knows it well, she says: «how do you do it? where do you go? who do we leave them with?». The answer she found for herself — a craft that is in your hands and stays close to home — is the same one she dreams of teaching.
Every piece is made to order, at home, by one person alone. These are her gestures.
There are no moulds that do the work for her: every petal is cut, heated and curved by hand, one at a time, until the flower takes its shape and the petals find their harmony.
Pieces come into being when somebody asks for them: no stockroom, no production runs. Every lamp leaves the table for the house that is waiting for it.
«I want it 80 centimetres, not 70.» «I'd like it softer.» Real requests, met: sizes, colours and shapes adapt to the house that is waiting for them.
Every review has a reply written by her; messages get an answer within hours. Whoever buys one of her pieces speaks to the person who made it, not to a customer service desk.
Customers write it in their reviews before they even mention the lamp: parcels prepared with care, made to cross Europe and arrive intact — and lovely to open.
Giant flowers and made-to-measure sets for weddings, events and spaces: the same hand as the lamps, on a larger scale.
The piece that made her known in Europe: the flower-chandelier, with white at the top of the requests. Isolon petals shaped by hand around the light, standard E27 fitting, a light structure designed for a domestic ceiling.
Roses and blooms at human height: the lamp that becomes the corner of the room. The large version reaches 130 centimetres; the sculptural one can also be mounted on standard bases.
The most loved in Italy: bedside roses that come on in the evening. Every flower is shaped by hand; stem and base change with the style of the room.
Where it all began: giant crêpe paper roses, shaped petal by petal, and the velvet flower boxes. They live without water, they cross the seasons and they stay as beautiful as the day they arrived.
The fifth family is in the conversation. Different sizes, colours on request, installations for ceremonies, parties and shop windows — you start from an idea and arrive at a piece that exists in one copy only.
The creations with their own pages, photographs and prices in euros — the first Italian shop window for GlowBlooms.
Germany and France in the lead, the white chandelier as the most requested piece, three chandeliers in the making for Germany — and alongside the online shop the direct orders, the commissions and the installations, with every review receiving its own reply written by hand.
On 18 December GlowBlooms is entered in the Registro delle Imprese (the Italian business register) as an artisan business, with its address in Collesalvetti (LI).
The first creations on sale on Etsy, in English, for the world: the house in Collesalvetti starts shipping.
Lockdown, a three-year-old boy, a video found by chance and a sheet of crêpe paper: the small rose from which everything grew.
A workshop that is a home, a shop that is the world: the pieces travel from international Etsy to Instagram reels.
An expanded polyethylene that began as building insulation and, in a thinner and glossier formula, becomes an artistic material: it is shaped with heat petal by petal, it is light, hard-wearing and — unlike paper — it can be washed. It is similar to EVA foam, but glossier and softer to work. It is the material of the GlowBlooms lamps and giant flowers.
Yes, and it is one of the reasons Demetra chose Isolon: the petals can be cleaned with a cloth, even a damp one. This holds for the white pieces as much as the coloured ones — the shades and gradations are laid on to last, and they clean along with the petal.
Yes, and it is the rule rather than the exception: sizes, colours and details are agreed before the work begins, because every piece is made to order. Requests already met include lamps made «softer» and sizes outside the catalogue.
The lamps use standard fittings (E27) and are designed for LED bulbs, which do not heat the petals. On the chandeliers the lampholder and the ceiling rose are included; the bulb is chosen at home.
Yes: giant flowers, sets and made-to-measure decorations for weddings, ceremonies, parties and shop windows. Installations are designed together, around the space and the occasion — a quotation is requested with a message.
They live without water and they cross the seasons: they are flowers of crêpe paper and Isolon, made to stand up to time. The paper rose is, literally, a flower for ever.
On the brand's Etsy shop, which ships throughout Europe and beyond, and on Tuscany Market Hub. For bespoke pieces and installations, write to Demetra directly.
Here we tell who makes them and why. There is the catalogue: chandeliers, lamps, flowers and flower boxes, each with its own page and its own dimensions.
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