I was looking at the gumpaste flowers at
http://www.dianescakesandmore.com/weddingcakedecorations/weddingcakedecorations.html and I was wondering if the gerbera daisies are made with mold and where I could get one? Also, I would like to make my own gumpaste and would like to know where to buy the ingredients. Thank you.

I don't mean to put anyone down but those really are not the nicest Gerberas I've seen, they are rolled awfully thick. I think you get a much more realistic flower by using the PME Daisy and Sunflower cutters, they vein the flowers as they cut. The come with instructions but I would aslo suggest Nic Lodges book 'A Potpourri of flowers" I think you can find the PME cutters at Global Sugar Art as well as Sugarcraft.

Here is a beautifully done gumpaste Gerbera.

If you use Nicholas Lodge's gumpaste recipe, the only ingredient you night not find at the grocery store would be the Tylose powder. I have found the best price to be Global Sugar Art, although others may know of another source with a better price. Here is Nic's recipe.

http://www.nicholaslodge.com/gumpaste.htm

Shirley that gerbera is sooo beautiful. Thank you for the information

It is a beautiful flower, wish I could say I made it.

I'm with ShirleyW here. The flowers being sold look more like a fantasy gerbera. Undoubtedly they have been made so thick so that they survive shipping. These flowers are very fragile when made, but the petals on a real gerbera are very thin and delicate.

Here's the one I made in Nicholas Lodge's class. Certainly far from perfect, but it looks more like the live ones I've had than those being sold in the link above.

I have the cutters Shirley mentions and I love them.

Rae

okay, how did you make the centers???? both of these flowers are beautiful. Very nice work, ladies!!

These daisies are great. Can you provide the item # of the daisy cutter?

I'll try to describe the center making process as best I can

We made a "T" hook on a heavy gauge wire (maybe 22??) and inserted it into a ball of gum paste (maybe 1/2 inch round). We flattened the ball on the top half (pressed it down on the counter) and let that dry for a good 24hrs. We then covered the flattened center with yellow gum paste. At this point, if you have a mold for the gerbera center, you can press it into that and finesse the edges by making tiny cuts with cuticle scissors. We didn't use the mold, so we used the cuticle scissors to clip the top very superficially and to make deeper "V" cuts on the sides all the way around.

Hope that's clear.....
Rae

This is the one we used, but there's no photo (and I don't personally have the cutter):

http://www.internationalsugarart.com/cgi-bin/store/shop.cgi?ud=TjFDRklGVEhQTCUlJSUlJTExNzQzMzEzNTAA&storeid=1&sortby=categories&searchtext=gerbera&cols=1&&c=detail.htm&itemid=MC170

I use this one at home and I love it:

http://www.globalsugarart.com/customer/product.php?productid=17424&cat=&page=1

Rae

BlakesCakes - thanks so much!!!

Thanks Rae, I look forward to trying that sometime. Down with a back injury that's preventing much cakework right now, but I hope to be back and able to participate in passin around pics and such again soon. Meantime, keep up the beautiful work.
Blessins!!
Caly