I'd just finished making the cushion for my gumpaste shoe, both of which are my first attempts, and was happily taking photos of my pride and joys, when the unthinkable happened and my shoe, which had earlier shown small signs of cracking, had now almost snapped in two. It is severly cracked in one spot and has two other pretty bad cracks - one above and one below the main one.
Is it worth trying to repair it, and if so, how do I go about it, or should I just bite the bullet and start again?

ps- I've tried putting some gumpaste glue on the cracks, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

pps - I've never done any courses and have only made one other fondant cake before, so I don't know any of the tricks of the trade that many of you might know. I made the shoe from the template kindly provided here and followed their instructions on putting it together, but I don't know if I should have put some sort of support wire in to help it stay strong.

That looks like you were moving it around alot before it was dry. It looks like a start over to me.
Those cracks are pretty bad to try and patch and your shoe would look distorted(like there's no room for a foot) if you try to put another insert over the cracks.

I don't think gum glue will help...goop would help mend it. Now, that I see the images, 'goop'ing the cracked areas and allowing them to dry(filling in the name as well), then attaching a thinly rolled insert on top of the one that's in there already and allowing the entire piece to dry...completely...several days between steps...will at least give you a good shoe to further embellish if desired. or, after it's completely dried, go back and clean up any visible patch jobs. I wouldn't toss it but I wouldn't plan on using it for a cake that is needed anytime soon.

Yeah I think you're right, it will probably look pretty bad if I try.

I did actually move it around a little bit, which must be what caused the first one. The other two actually happened while I was trying to fix the crack!

Thanks very much for your advice.

I read the other post and was agreeing with making goop to fix, but seeing the picture makes me think it's beyond repair. That is a stress fracture. It will only get worse. I hate to say it, but you need to start over. It's really cute, but imprinting the name might have added to the instability of the sole. Could you try painting it on afterward instead? Or, maybe you could create a "tag" with Sophia's name? I just worry that the pressure you put into the dotted effect of the name is part of the reason you have the cracks. Sorry you have to tackle it again. Chin up!

I think you can still imprint the name, just not as deep.

Thanks for your comments guys, I really appreciate it.

Win, I actually did the imprint in the lining, before sticking it on to the sole, so I doubt that would have caused it, but I can see how you might have thought that.

I think the main problem was that I moved it around too much before it was fully dry.

Oh well, it's been a good learning experience for me, and hopefully the second one will be much quicker to do, now that I know what I'm doing a bit more!

I'd better get to bed now, as it's 2.45am here, and I need to get some rest before I start this all over again!

Duplicate post, please see:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-664269-.html

HTH