Hello. My name is Myesha and I'm new to this site (today is my second day) and I'm fairly new to cake decorating. I want to learn how to make the gumpaste flowers. What is a good way to learn? I checked at JoAnn's and I know they offer a class, but is this how most of you learned?

I took A wilton class which didn't actually teach many flowers but it did teach a couple (carnations, daisies and fantasy flower). It gave me a feel of how to appraoch gumpaste. I then bought and borrowed books (library) and have been experimenting on my own. There are a lot of books out there with pretty good directions once you know which tools are used for which results!! i would still love to take some more advanced courses but there just aren't any remotely close to where I live.

Wecome to Cake Central. While there are excellent books on gumpaste flowers, one of the best ways to learn is from a video. I can highly recommend any of the Videos offered at nicholaslodge.com

He is a detailed, careful teacher. You will get excellent results, and they are affordable.

Thank you both for the information. I'm going to check out the video and get some books. Thanks.

I have taught myself from books which husband gave me for Christmas. I buy the gumpaste ready made in a little pouch and just try stuff. Most of my flowers thus far have looked kinda "special" (as in, special olympics), but I'm getting better. Just practice a lot before you have an occasion to need them, because the first 30 or so are not beautiful. Be sure to get the good rolling foam and a ball tool. I suggest starting with Sweet Peas....they're pretty simple and not heavy. Have fun and try not to get frustrated with the ugly ones!

I'm self taught. I like English books in particular. There is a pic of the cake I am working on right now. The flowers, basked, and sea urchin shell are all GP. I make my GP using the Nick Lodge recipe. It's great. Good luck.

This is a very good book on gumpaste flowers by Nicholas Lodge: http://www.internationalsugarart.com/cgi-bin/store/shop.cgi?ud=UjBaOUk4VVRDViUlJSUlJTExODEwOTY3ODAA&storeid=1&sortby=categories&cols=1&categories=0003&&c=detail.htm&itemid=BBB

It has very clear instructions, lots of pictures and templates.

Oh, Fairytale...I love the big peony! Did you do it from cutters or freehand?

I have taken a few classes and I also have some videos and some books. I learned the most from the few classes I have taken, and I also learned a lot from videos. I think watching each step all the way through was very helpful. After that, it was much easier to see what was going on with instructions from books.