I followed the directions on how to make a fondant fairy on this site, and I tried it yesterday, and loved the results. Today, I tried the process again, but with a few changes and manipulations to the 'recipe' that I thought helped to speed the process and make a better figure. Here's what I changed:

First of all, I colored the fondant in very pastel colors, and then later when each peice was ready to be finished, I would spruce it up with airbrush for depth and dimension.

Secondly, I made a very skinny torso to go on the legs base, then I took a skinny dowel rod and stuck it through both (being sure to stretch back out the scrunched up torso after being 'doweled'). Then I added the clothing, then I added the arms like a shish-kabob.

When I got to the head part, I cut the end of the dowel off with wire cutters, leaving only a little 'neck' of dowel for the head to be skewered onto.

The face I sculpted a little with some flower tools, then painted the features on with food coloring and a tooth pick.

Lastly, I stuck toothpicks into the legs hidden under cloth and hands so that the figure would be secured to the cake.

Actually no, the last thing I did to save time was to use 'peices' of hair instead of individually rolling each and every strand. I took a teardrop peice of light yellow fondant, took a toothpick (or the sharp end of a dowel rod) and 'drew' lines in it to look like strands, twisted the end, airbrushed the 'roots' and the ends of the 'hair', then affixed it to the side of the figure's head like a wig.

So yeah, I hope this info helps someone! I was able to get the figure making process down to 45 minutes this time instead of the hour I took on the fairy (whose picture is posted in the cake decorating forum...for some reason cake central won't allow me to post in a gallery).

And of course, here's a pic of the finished product:

What a lovely angel.
(She reminds me of Marlene Dietrich....)

Thanks so much for sharing.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to submit your method as a tutorial:

http://cakecentral.com/submit-article.php

Look forward to seeing more of your creations!

P.S. If you're not doing anything Sept. 6, a demo of your method would be very popular at the Louisville gathering:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-588028-.html