2nd time working with gumpaste flowers, and they turn out nice, but it is SOOO hard to work with because it dries so fast. Sculpey is much easier! So, since Sculpey is about the same price per pound, is there any way to make it work for cakes? Putting waxed paper under it? Wrapping wires with plastic? There has to be a way! 
If there's no way to make Sculpey work, is there any way to make gumpaste dry just as hard, but not so quickly?
Wilton has introduced a line of "non-edible paper clay" cake embellishments...bows, roses sprays, toppers, etc. And plastic stuff has been used on cakes as long as I have been alive (I'm older than dirt 
) So if they can do that, probably most anything non-toxic would be acceptable. Seems like I remember Sculpey is non-toxic. Nobody eats those dried gumpaste/royal icing/fondant flowers and stuff anyway, do they?
Good Luck!
Anna
Yes, Scupley is non-toxic. So, why in the world do we use gumpaste????????????
because the "purists" want it totally edible (well in theory -- i aint' eaten no gumpaste!)
That's very true...I think it's just because of the "wow" factor you get when people say "You can EAT that???!!!" as opposed to, "that's nice"...even though it's the same piece of work, something edible is more exciting. People love to eat.
You may want to try adding some fondant into your gumpaste. That will allow you more time to work with it. Try adding a piece no larger than about 1/4 the amount of gumpaste you are working with. This may allow you to roll it out thinner as well.
Make sure if you have cut out several pieces, you keep them covered and only take one petal out at a time. Sorry if you already are aware of all this.
The last time I made roses, I didn't cut the petals, I just took a little pea sized ball and formed the petal in my palm. That eliminated the rough, dried edges I sometimes get on petals. (I used a small amt of crisco on my hands.)
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