Just curious. I've always tried to make my GP flowers look as real as possible.....but sometime I really like see flowers that, while they resemble the real thing, don't necessarily fool my eye....but they give the cake a more overall "made by hand" look.

Anyone else ever think this way?

I think it depends on the design your going for. There are some cases were "fantasy" flowers look better than real ones and vice versa!

I can appreciate both the realistic and 'cartoonified'... and all the ones inbetween. Realistic ones do lend themselves better to more formal cakes.

I have never ever seen a GP flower that didn't look fake. EVER. I have been lucky enough to take some classes from some high-end decorators.... people who win International awards for the GP flowers supposedly looking real. I'm sorry - they don't. They don't have the texture and they look stiff.

Roses have a velvety look and feel - I've yet to see a GP rose with that same look/feel to it. And the others are even worse at being able to imitate.

If you want the look of real floowers - use real flowers. Period, end of discussion - IMNTBHO.

Now, GP look better than most silk - no doubt.

I have seen some amazing flowers. You can't expect a flower made of gumpaste to feel like a real flower. It's not a real flower. But yet I digress...I like both gumpaste flowers and fantasy flowers. I believe that whimsy has its place. We do this because we like to create works of art with our hands not because we feel the need to exactly match the real thing. Sometimes that means using our imaginations to work one detail to collaborate with another detail.

My personal opinion is that when gumpaste flowers are well made that they can very much look like fresh flowers. The quality of the gumpaste is extremely important and making them very thin is also key. This level of work is difficult and very, very fragile.

I have seen the work of some very talented decorators whose flowers are quite impressive.

This is bragging, but I'm proud of it. Many of my flowers have been broken by judges because they looked real. Even the top flower makers in the U.S. have been impressed by my flowers. They are thin enough for light to show through them and I can read fine print on my business card before I assemble a flower.

Check out my gallery to see why I'm proud.

Michele

sugarflowers: Your flowers are AMAZING!! I pray that I am that good some day!

Your chocolate gumpaste rose arrangement just was stunning!

I love fantasy flowers too. Well made flowers of any style are wonderful for making cakes look fabulous. Many time stylized flowers are the best way to go.

Michele

p.s. Thanks you for the compliments.

But that's another thing that bothers me- the GOP flowers are rolled so thin light shows through. That doesn't happen in real life. I've never seen light show through a rose, including white or pink. And I've never seen a rose as thin as the really good designers make them - and are expected to make them.

There is no flexibility as in real flowers, and they don't even look flexible to the naked eye. Like I said, they are better than silk, but I will never understand why anyone would want them over real flowers that look real.

I make them and use them when requested, but I am never happy with that decision.

Have you ever looked at roses outside on a sunny day? The light does sometimes come through the petals, making the whole thing look like it's glowing. It's beautiful.

I prefer to make my roses a little thicker then most people, it makes them a little more durable. And not to toot my own horn but for being a beginner I think my roses look pretty life like :p

Here is a picture of real roses I took
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/XxLust_WhorexX/7b053f37.jpg

And here are some of my best roses
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1942995

Of course you can tell the difference but I think there are many beautiful life like gumpaste flowers out there!

I never said GP weren't pretty, I make some very pretty GP flowers.

I said I never saw any that looked real.

While your roses are extremely well done, they look very different from the real picture. They look like GP, plain and simple.

And, Yes, I had a very large rose garden when living in NC - no matter how bright the sun was shining the sun did not pass through a single rose. It may have made the rose brighter, but did not pass through.

I make mine thicker also, for the same reason as you. I figure if they are going to look fake anyway, why bother with making them even more breakable.

I prefer fresh flowers or fantasy flowers if they need to be edible. While I appreciate the artistry and labor that goes into making realistic gumpaste flowers , I don't really "get" it. It seems absurd to me to go to all that trouble in an attempt to duplicate the real thing vs just using the real thing. Even more so if the gumpaste flowers are realistic enough that people don't know the difference unless its pointed out to them or they break them or whatever. It has always seemed to me that few people beyond sugar artists and the clients that hire them to make the flowers, care about it one way or another.

I think the bonus between real and gumpaste flowers is you don't have to worry about the flowers being safe to put on a cake. Not all flowers should be paired with something that will be eaten, either because they are poisonous or because they have pestisides on them.

I adore real flowers... and I love making gumpaste flowers. It allows me to study and appreciate real flowers for the amazing work of nature that they are. The wonder of gumpaste flowers is that - like every natural flower, they are each unique, a work of art, and safe for cakes. When I give someone a cake decorated with gumpaste flowers, they know that I lovingly made each and every flower, bud, berry, and leaf just for them. More often than not, they keep some of the flowers from the cake for a long time. One of my son has a few lady bugs left over from a cake that I decorated a long time ago. For some reason, he loved the lady bugs

I made a two-tiered 60th anniversary cake for lovely friends, covered with fall flowers (she said, no roses please), and people were surprised when they discovered that they weren't fresh flowers... and I'm just an amateur. Again, the difference was that Betty knew that each flower was made just for her. It's hard to beat that! Oh, yes... here's the cake: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1869454/1869455