MB, I forgot to add. The petals curve inward. Give that a try if you are still doing them. 
@JWinslow this is an unfocused photo but good enough for the question. curve inwards - as from the center to the edge, and from the side to side of each petal? These petals really are too thick, and that will be corrected next time.
but each petal needs to be cupped more? They do seem pretty flat from this angle.
I also realize that I need a fatter center and not a flat saucer sitting on a wire. That can be corrected easily next time also.
And lots more stamens. I like your way of wrapping them up and putting the pistol down through the center. {Don't laugh too hard, but it must have taken me 15 minutes to get these tiny stamens to sit together and taped to the center part. Roses were SO much easier.}
@cazza1 petal dusts are on their way. Sent for them from @costumeczar 's shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/ACakeToRemember I'll steal some of my husbands artist brushes 
@-K8memphis cutting cookies is a piece of cake! that's a good way to change the perspective for me. Anything the mind can conceive, you can achieve. Positive thinking. My girlfriend asked me what in the heck I'm going to do with all these flowers!! I won't go into business, and there's only so many cakes we can eat. Well, I said, everyone has to have a hobby, and then sent her home with cupcakes 
I see the curve now - It must have been the other photo angle.
I think that disc shape is probably the reason you can't get the petals closer. It is preventing them from reaching up more. You can also bend the bottom of the petal after it's wired and veined to make it easier to get close.
My center is actually more of a cone that is flattened on top.
I'm not laughing about stamens - I get that!!!!! You can also bend the stamens if you want - you want to shoot for no gap between the center and your petals. This is where the threading method and a cone shaped center work.
y'know you can roll it again after you get it out of the pasta roller yes? i mean you can make it see through if you want and i know this was mentioned upthread somehwere but i wanted to expound on getting the edges thinner and here's one way to do it --
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{ }
{ }
{ --------------------------------------------- }
[ ]
[ ]
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here's a little slab of gum paste you just took out of your pasta roller -- put your rolling pin on the dotted line and roll up so the top half is thinner between the { } and then between the [ ] on the lower half it stays thicker to hold the wire then lay your cutter so you cut one petal with two thicknesses -- top of the petal in the thin area of course -- and of course roll over it to smooth out the difference --
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it's interesting that you've kindly said i was an encyclopedia -- i started footnoting my posts to fend off people disputing my recommendations my first 25 years of caking i learned out of books and testing/doing it --
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you're getting so much instruction -- i know this thick/thin was mentioned but i didn't want to dig through 11 pages -- so anyhow an amplified thin edged petal thought for you --
best flowers to you --- shoot, you're there
and if a person knows what page their info is on it's easy to 'jump' directly to that page.
Just put your cursor over the block with the three dots in the page number line
it will say "click to select the page number to jump to" and click. Just like Dorothy in the Wizard Of Oz..........
Here is the wired gumpaste poppy cake.
SMBC icing, small fondant trim on bottom. I like the extra ruffled edges on the bottom flower better than the top flower. The red ribbon on the bottom looks maroon, but really it's a deep rich red. The flowers will look better with some petal dust, and I need to use fatter & more numerous stamens for the poppy. It's still kinda intriguing........how do you pros ever do this in high volume????? I'm knackered already from just this one cake.
ALove your cake! The colour scheme is really effective. And I agree, i prefer the more ruffled poppy at the base too. And yes, they will look better with more stamens in the centre. I hated doing poppies for this reason too, the centres are a real pain!
Remember, like everything you do, with practice you will get faster. It's actually amazing how many flowers you can knock out when you set up a production line, for example, I do all my rose centres in advance, then add petals to them and build them up. The waiting time leaving one set of petals to set up a little in spoons can be used to start the next rose. Then I tape on the petals that have been sitting a little while. Add your favourite TV or radio program in the background and you're set!
Tomorrow (so far) for my Etsy shop I have to make 4 sets of monogram hearts, two sets of fleur de lis, a gumpaste magnolia, two peonies and a bunch of succulents, a bunch of isomalt jewels and a few molds. If anyone else orders anything I'll add that to the list. And I'm planning on being done with all that by noon so that I can work on some wafer paper orchids, gumpaste bamboo and gumpaste roses and leaves for this week's wedding cakes. Like @winniemog said it gets easier once you've done this kind of thing for a while and you get your routine down.
Your poppies look good!
"...... I hated doing poppies for this reason too, the centres are a real pain!
......Remember, like everything you do, with practice you will get faster......"
Tomorrow (so far) for my Etsy shop I have to make 4 sets of monogram hearts, two sets of fleur de lis, a gumpaste magnolia, two peonies and a bunch of succulents, a bunch of isomalt jewels and a few molds. If anyone else orders anything I'll add that to the list. And I'm planning on being done with all that by noon so that I can work on some wafer paper orchids, gumpaste bamboo and gumpaste roses and leaves for this week's wedding cakes. Like @winniemog said it gets easier once you've done this kind of thing for a while and you get your routine down.
Thanks for the thumbs up, I think that I'd make a hundred gumpaste roses before I'd make another poppy....Whew it was difficult. You guys are cake decorating Power Rangers, way ahead of the curve!! LOL
( I cheated a bit by pulling off the poppies and putting the small roses on the same cake. I was going to put them on cupcakes but I went with @-K8memphis not to do it. I'll take this cake to family tomorrow so it doesn't matter that it's poorly placed and unbalanced- wonky looking)
@costumeczar......and on top of all of those orders you made the Alice In Wonderland Wedding Cake.........My head would explode.
hubby asked if I was going to try peonies next. Yes, but I think that I need a gumpaste stay-cation. lol.
Thanks for all the guidance. I'm waiting for some little foam balls to arrive, for the centers. I've got @costumeczar 's photo tutorial so I can follow along with her instructions.
So it'll be a margarita - rum & coke - pina colada BAR towel on my lap.......
Quote:
Here is the wired gumpaste poppy cake.
SMBC icing, small fondant trim on bottom. I like the extra ruffled edges on the bottom flower better than the top flower. The red ribbon on the bottom looks maroon, but really it's a deep rich red. The flowers will look better with some petal dust, and I need to use fatter & more numerous stamens for the poppy. It's still kinda intriguing........how do you pros ever do this in high volume????? I'm knackered already from just this one cake.
Very Pretty! I'll have a slice, please :) Really nice job!
I agree about the slight ruffle - I prefer it also.
Production comes with time & practice. As you become more comfortable you will find procedures/short cuts that streamline everything. The rose production that @winniemog posted is a perfect example - exactly how I do them also. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to have everything you need set up and ready to go right down to the wires already cut to size - stick them in a straw in the styrofoam so you can just grab and go. I even set up my dusts ahead of time. I put a piece of parchment in a cookie sheet with sides (helps to contain the dust) with the color pots and some brushes then set aside until I'm ready for it.
This is all still new so hang in there - I promise it gets easier :)
As a side note, I tried the poppy centers with the stiffer stamens and found them very difficult - I will save them for an anemone where I can just stick them into the paste around the center (you don't use as many as the poppy).
What? No Wine? What's up with that? lol
A
Original message sent by JWinslow
What? No Wine? What's up with that? lol
Wine is post-flower production, G & T is pre-production.....I tend to try for 0% BAC during so I drink hot drinks while in the production zone! Flower making is THIRSTY work.
ABooze puts me to sleep (but then again everything puts me to sleep) so i rely on caffeine, and a lot of it, on a daily basis.
Wine is post-flower production, G & T is pre-production.....I tend to try for 0% BAC during so I drink hot drinks while in the production zone! Flower making is THIRSTY work.
LOL - Like costumeczar, booze actually makes me sleepy anymore. I would probably end up with petals in my face and wires in my ear if I drank while making flowers. Good black coffee is my beverage of choice for just about everything, Unlike most people, unless I'm making a ton of little bits I stand while making flowers - don't know why, just do.
In case you drop the flower and it breaks (very distressing!)
to break it's fall if you happen to be lucky enough for it to not bounce off the table as it lands in your lap? i would jump up and smash it between my leg and the table -- to wipe your tears? probably should whip the blankets off the bed and surround yourself
yes a little booze and i'm fast asleep-- i'm off caffeine now forever -- no worries i eat more to make up for it
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LOL - Like costumeczar, booze actually makes me sleepy anymore. I would probably end up with petals in my face and wires in my ear if I drank while making flowers. Good black coffee is my beverage of choice for just about everything, Unlike most people, unless I'm making a ton of little bits I stand while making flowers - don't know why, just do.
I stand up too. I use the KA pasta roller and it's easier to stand at the counter to use that, so I think that's why I don't sit down. The only thing I sit down for is to roll fondant pearls and to make hydrangea centers to use later.
I guess that my bar stool at the kitchen counter will go well with my bar towel and peonies.
however, coffee cream & sugar will be my libation during the production phase. Course with me it'll be 3 pots of coffee to one peony 
One thing that I am going to have to learn is flower placement. I've seen a few books that look helpful:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1847731228/?tag=cakecentral-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1847734413/?tag=cakecentral-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1847736637/?tag=cakecentral-20
There is a big level of design and artistic flair that just come naturally for so many of the cake artists. After considering what I will be able to do........I've come to the conclusion that "keeping it simple' and 'less is more' might be my only option for making something attractive.
I have two of the three books. The Alan Dunn Sugar Flowers for Cake decorating is the book I used to learn how to take my roses to the next level. In the back of that book he does tell you how to assemble his sugar flower displays - step by step.
I also love the Claire Webb book. There is a couple of pages on making sprays and one for making a posy. This book has the carnation - didn't you say you love carnations?
They both have a ton of different flower instructions that would keep you busy for a very long time :)
AI WISH I was as inebriated as you all think I am when caking - but it ain't so.....sadly a post-cake drink is the best I look forward to! As you say, my flowers would start growing sideways as my head slid to meet my shoulder and then probably the floor....in Australia I'm called a one pot screamer - also known as a cheap date, because one drink and I'm under the table! Still, it never hurts to dream....
And yes the towel protects the flower if (when!) you drop it! I stand for all my caking except making flowers, I don't know why I sit for them, I just always have! And then when I'm taping petals or flowers together, I pull the chair back from the table, get my towel, and tape away. I do love K8's idea of a blanket drop zone around me though....and maybe I could use crime scene tape to shut my children out of the area too! The joys of baking from home....
Flower placement - the next step - that is a long path that I feel I have only taken a few steps along. Alan Dunn's books are amazing BTW so enjoy reading and practising. And make that cinnamon roll cake to keep up your strength while you're at it!
flower placement: well I still feel wonky about those roses with the 3 petals shoved onto the cake, it just really jolted me into thinking about placement & sprays & things. anyhow I'll send you some crime scene tape, a machine gun and a machete.....you'll be left VERY alone for a while hehe.
I also discovered that the rock hard gumpaste roses (that had been dry on the table for a week) do not stay that way. I put the rose cake in a Tupperware / Rubbermaid whatever brand it was; airtight container so the cake would stay nice & fresh overnight. Just overnight. Today I took it to family to eat. When I lifted off the lid the roses & leaves were as soft as wet noodles. Oopsie Oops. Lesson learned. 
The carnation cutters that I mail ordered arrived today. Yeah. Claire Webbs book will be helpful to me for carnations. I'll wait until I receive the book.
I'm looking forward to the carnations. I think I'll make myself a birthday cake and make a carnation cake just for me.
I've got Jennifer Dontz @JenniferMI DVD "Sensational Sugar Flowers vol 1' and I'm going to try to make a full rose following her tutorial. I have a bit of the gumpaste left, and I'm anxious to try her method with the plastic spoons. She is one of the CC members here who is a sugar artist extraordinaire.
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