I love the fondant roses, they look so real!!! I have just lately become obsessed with making fondant roses. I want them to look beautiful, instead I get something that ends up looking like a pregnant lady's popped out belly button with ruffles!!!! I've seen alot of tutorials, tried to make them freehand AND I even have the Wilton fondant rose cutters WITH instructions thank you very much........AND they still don't resemble anything like the photos I've seen!!!!!! I rolled out the fondant extra thin and made the petal look really nice, but once I apply it to the cone......IT LOOKS S T U P I D !!!!! I'm almost at my wits end, but I refuse to give up!!!! There's a tutorial in Toba Garrett's book that I'm going to try next, if all goes well I will post the picture.

Thanks for letting me vent......I feel better now!!!!

I think that is something you really need to see someone do. Is there anyone close to you that does them that you could watch, or a class you could take? Nothing beats a hands on approach to making roses thats for sure. Maybe if you post a pic of your roses someone can look at them and tell you what you are doing wrong, or could it be that maybe you are just being to hard on yourself?

I agree! I am a very visual learner, and I couldn't really get the hang of gp roses until I watched several demos by various people. Everyone has their own method, and you can pick up a lot of useful hints by watching others.

My roses still aren't "real"-looking (imo), but they aren't bad....especially for customers who have never seen sugar roses!

I was taught to wrap each pedal around the cone as you are going not put the cone on at the end. (I could be misinterpreting what you said) I know there are DVD's that Nicholas long puts out that show you how to do each flower. You can get them at global sugar art.
Hope this helps.
Jen...

oops! you did apply as you went.

I feel your pain! I, too, am obsessed with making lovely fondant roses, but mine come out looking awful!! I recently registered for Wilton Course 3, since the fondant rose is taught. The instructor taught us using a toothpick, which I found awkward. Of course her roses were gorgeous, but still could not do them. I guess it takes lots of practice. I can't make buttercream roses either!! The instructor invited me to come to class 1 of her Wilton Course 2 when it starts in April to see what I'm doing wrong on those buttercream roses!

Do you have a photo ? I myself love to make Roses, 50/50.. Fondant and Gum Paste.. I want to improve my Roses.. Somehow I cannot make my petals really, really thin.. I made these years ago. and they need some improvement.:

Wow Those look great to me! I wish mine looked that good!

Have you tried youtube? It's really neat because you can actually see it being done. Just type fondant roses or something to that matter and there'll be a whole lot of different things that'll come up and people will do live tutorials on how to do it. It's wonderful. You should try looking. It might help.

sugarflowers has a DVD on making roses that has helped many a CC members. Do a member search for her and her website will be listed where you can order the DVD

I find fondant alone too soft to make a realistic rose, I much prefer gumpaste. It can be rolled thinner and you can finesse the petals to a shape you like and they will stay in place. I love the easy rose cutter, also called the all in one rose. I have even tried adding Tylose powder to fondant and still don't get the type of rose I can get with gumpaste. I know you said you have seen many tutorials, but have you tried the one from Culpitt? It is the way Nicholas Lodge makes his and the instructions are easy to follow. Here are some gumpaste roses I made with that cutter.
And here is a link to the Culpitt tutorial
http://www.culpitt.com/how-to.php?page=162

Wow ShirleyW yours are beautiful. Do you have a link to the tutorial you mentioned? I have been trying forever to get my roses just right and am still having trouble with them. I've been using just fondant, maybe I should try the 50/50 or just gumpaste.

Or...does anyone have a good tutorial to recommend for us still trying?

Thank you!!

I'm desperate at roses - but aine2's youtube video has helped me tremendously!!

fondantgrl.. Beautiful !!!

ShirleyW.. Beautiful ! Where would I look for the cutter ? Thanks !

good info beachgirl Thanks

Molly2

I too have a hard time getting mine full. I've made some before but were just small ones. I can never get the nice frills that I see here. Keep keep trying..lol

ShirleyW thanks so much for sharing. Your work is awesome.

Here are a couple of photos of my latest attempt at making the fondant rose. The rose is actually not too bad, except that in one of the pictures it shows where I must have gone a bit lop-sided when placing the petals.

Please give your opinions and advise as to what and how I need to improve!!!

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As you layer your petals, make sure your cutter gets larger as you go. Those petals look like they might be all the same size so you get a sort of cone shape about your flower. Your petals should be sort of level at the top of the flower rather than sloping downward as they go out. I don't know if that's clear or not. Also, you could use some space between your layers. Rather than gluing so far up your petals put the glue on less petal, closer to the bottom and allow the rose to open up a bit. Some people will put cotton pieces as spacers until it is dry. Also, you have to hang the rose upside down to dry so that the petals don't fall off or open too much due to gravity (since there's less glue holding them on). I bought Michele Foster's DVD and watching her helped me so much. I had never had a succesful rose before that. Also, this tutorial helped me tremendously in getting that open flower look that I think is so natural and pretty. I have pics of my first and only flowers in my pics if you want to peek.

ETA: Oh! I wanted to add that I think those Wilton cutters are WAY too small. I think they'd make a rediculously small rose. I bought a set of jem cutters that have that really round shap with just a little point on the bottom. I thought they gave a really natural look to the flowers.

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1409721205047057112FcnmtW

You're so welcome. Michele's site is www.lickthespoonproductions.com

She teaches how to do the flowers without a cutter which is great, but I knew I didn't have time to perfect that technique, so I used what I learned with the cutter's I'd purchased. I've been holding on to so many rose tutorials and read how tos in books for so long and could never figure out how to make them work until I watched Michele's video. Then it all made sense. Good luck!

WOW!! all of your roses look great!!!

I had a terrible time with roses until I got the all in one cutter from Global Sugar Art. I make the MMF and add 1 tsp. of Tylose to 12 oz. of fondant. This works great for me and makes the petals stand up on their own. At the Wilton classes, she told us to roll the fondant thin enough so you can see the mat lines showing through the fondant. It makes a big difference in the order you wrap each petal as to how your rose looks when it is finished. It gives you instructions with the cutter, but the instructions in the Wilton class booklet worked the best for me. I could have cried at how easy it was when it finally sunk in, and I feel that the hands on instruction was just that little touch that I needed. I hope his is of some help.
Lily

lilibird, can you post link to that all-in-one cutter from gsa? thanks.

Please forgive me, but I am not very good with this computer stuff, but I can tell you how to get there "my way" lol. Go to the CC home page and click on Global Sugar Art at the top of the page. On their homepage is a list of links on the left hand side. Click on FMM Sugarcraft. When you get to that page you will find the FMM Five Petal Rose Cutters there and lots more on the second page. I have 3 sizes and I use them all the time.
Hope this helps
Lily

I use the JEM easy rose cutter and have several sizes. Scroll down to the pink plastic cutter. The nice bonus on these cutters is they have etched the size cone you will need to make for the center into the cutter itself.

http://globalsugarart.com/search.php?search=rose+cutter&searchimage.x=25&searchimage.y=4

The trick I learned was to thin the edges only, not the entire petal. That way the petal has strength and when the petals are attached, you can't tell the rest of the petals are a little thicker.