Help! My Gumpaste Petals Won't Stick!
Decorating By projectqueen Updated 30 Mar 2006 , 10:55pm by Taigen
What am I doing wrong. Just tried gumpaste for the first time, bought the powdered stuff and only had to add water. Made a nice dough. Made the center of my rose, no problem. Started forming freehand petals, got them nice and thin and started attaching them to the base. Fine. After about the first 3 or 4, the petals won't stick. The base is already drying and they are not very sticky and have nothing to adhere to. They just flop off. I tried about 3 times and it keeps happening.
What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to be gluing each petal on with something? Do I use water? The gumpaste doesn't seem too dry until the petals are formed. I'm making them thin.
Please help! The bc roses were a bust and now this!
What am I doing wrong. Just tried gumpaste for the first time, bought the powdered stuff and only had to add water. Made a nice dough. Made the center of my rose, no problem. Started forming freehand petals, got them nice and thin and started attaching them to the base. Fine. After about the first 3 or 4, the petals won't stick. The base is already drying and they are not very sticky and have nothing to adhere to. They just flop off. I tried about 3 times and it keeps happening.
What am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to be gluing each petal on with something? Do I use water? The gumpaste doesn't seem too dry until the petals are formed. I'm making them thin.
Please help! The bc roses were a bust and now this!
You need to let your bases dry completely before you start putting your petals on...Could your petals be heavier than you think? Maybe that's why they aren't sticking..
I use gum glue to adhere my petal to the base. I dissolve some tylose in warm water and it makes a nice glue. egg whites mixed with a little water also makes a glue.
When I make my roses I use a heart cutter for the center wrap around petal, then I use three petals for the next row. I let each row dry before putting the next one on. When I put the reamaining petals on the flower I hang it upside down to dry so the petals stay in place. and I have a nice shaped flower. The petals can get heavy and I would have trouble if I put all the petals on a once.
Don't get discouraged if this is your first time making gumpaste roses...It's not easy and takes practice!! Roses are my specialty because I've done soooo many!! The more you make, the easier and the better you get!! Are you using instructions? It helps to have something to refer to!!
Good luck!!
whenever I work with gumpaste I use a practic board if you know what that is...it's a small board with a plastic sheet on top that can be lifted up and down.......when I roll out my petals I put them underneath the plastic sheet to keep them from drying too quickly....sounds like you're not working quick enough (which can be extremely hard when you're not used to working with gumpaste)....maybe you should try making one petal and then putting it on the base...then making the second petal and then attatch it...that way they won't dry out and you can still play around with the shape of the petals (like rolling the edge down slightly, etc. ) while you're attatching it...and I ALWAYS keep a small dish of water and a clean paint brush handy to attatch the pieces....don't dip your fingertip in the water and apply it because then your hands will get all sticky and you will make a huge mess of your rose.....and use the water sparingly too. Hope this helps.
I use egg white as glue, or someone else said you could use gin or vodka too.
The Wilton instructions (if that's what you're using to start out) IMHO aren't very, well, GOOD. I had to get a couple of other books by other authors and sort of put all the information together before I could get flowers not to fall apart on me or to look halfway decent.
I've only worked with gumpaste once so others here no far more than I do but I use the meringue powder and water for the "egg white glue". It worked great. I also made the centers, let them dry, then worked on each rose in order. I made 12 so I would put the first petal on the first rose, do the next etc. etc. and by the time I got back to the first rose it was dry enough to start the next petals. Have no idea if this is the right method but it worked for me 
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