Quote:
A nice soft landing for petals is a good thing. Then peonies shall be put on the back burner and saved for much later.
Peonies are super simple like costumeczar said. If you can make a rose (which you obviously can) you will find the closed peony simple. You can either wire the center of a 1.5 inch styro ball or not. Check out costumeczar's tutorial and here is another. I prefer the wired center because they are easier to handle. I use some foil over a glass as the former.
http://tarttokig.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/tutorial-unwired-peony/
Quote:
@JWinslow I was looking at @JenniferMI 's website Sugar Delights to see the peony cutters and there is a whole bouquet of peonies made by you. Wow they are beautiful big bold flowers.
There is a whole new world of sugar flowers with gumpaste and petal dust.
Lovely cake MB. Take a bow. As mentioned above lustre dust will really bring your leaves to life. May I suggest that carnations are extremely easy to make. I know they don't seem particularly popular now a days but being a messy looking flower it is extremely easy to hide all manner of sins when you make them. I find them quite soothing to make when I have been out of the flower making business for a time. They are certainly easier than roses.
AOn the subject of the foam pads...i use this kind of foam craft board, it has to be firm enough to give some resistance for me because i really put a lot of pressure on the ball tools when i frill things, and the little foam boards don't work for me. They either don't resist enough, or they stick tot he gumpaste. This stuff is cheap, works great, doesn't stick, and if it gets grubby you can throw it out and cut another piece to use[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3284799/width/350/height/700[/IMG] .
@JWinslow I was looking at @JenniferMI 's website Sugar Delights to see the peony cutters and there is a whole bouquet of peonies made by you. Wow they are beautiful big bold flowers.
There is a whole new world of sugar flowers with gumpaste and petal dust.
Thank you :) Those are your typical closed peony with the last two rows wired. I made them a couple of years ago as part of a table scape.
Yes, sugar flowers is another whole world. CC has quite a few flower artists that I admire like EugenieS.. Her work makes me sigh.
Quote:
On the subject of the foam pads...i use this kind of foam craft board, it has to be firm enough to give some resistance for me because i really put a lot of pressure on the ball tools when i frill things, and the little foam boards don't work for me. They either don't resist enough, or they stick tot he gumpaste. This stuff is cheap, works great, doesn't stick, and if it gets grubby you can throw it out and cut another piece to use
.
Michael's carry these in various thicknesses. I've used them for many different things but it never occurred to me to use as a petal pad. I'll have to play with them.
Some of them are too hard, but you can tell if you press them. If there's a little give they'll work fine.
Thank You both, @maisie73 and @cazza1. I've rarely made anything that was considered "pretty", so it's a brand new experience. I'm a heck of a good baker though! lol
Carnations are one of the flowers that the grocery store sells locally, so I get them in the house occasionally. I'm looking forward to trying those. They do evoke old-fashioned memories for me.
Elmers foam boards - they are a lot cheaper than the cake decorating foam pads that's for sure, and disposable is good. They sell them on amazon so I can buy them through the mail later on. I was just concerned about the cleanliness of the pads.
I put this in 'The Lounge' forum as I was sure that I'd make a right ****-up of these flowers. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the process of making them. Sounds strange I'm sure, but there was something that just took me out of the world around me when I was rolling and cutting the gumpaste.
Petal dust question.......What type and shape of brush do you use to paint the dry petals and leaves. acrylic, sable, round, flat, angled, fat & fluffy? will just one brush do the job for everything. It will be a while before I can purchase this stuff, but now I'm curious.
AI use cheaper brushes for a lot if this stuff, just from the $2 shop or cheaper craft stores!
For dusting I use a firm (stiff) flat brush, a bit like the shape of an eye shadow brush. When you dust, it's good to dust from underneath a petal too up to the edge of the petal, which gives the lovely darker line along the edge of the petal. It's a bit hard to describe sorry. Let me know if it's not clear!
For glazing I use a sacrificial brush....I struggle to clean that brush completely so I just an old brush! For painting, I use a small round brush depending on the area I have to cover - for leaves a 0 or 1 brush, for markings on orchids etc I will use a 00 or even finer (I have down to 0000 for painting facial features on models!)
I like water color brushes and I use a variety of round, flat and angled depending on the job I'm doing. Mostly round and flat or angled for edges.
I saw a video recently on CakeFu where Robert Haynes used a wide flat brush for the green leaves he was making. Works quite well. He also shows you how to do the reddish highlights.
Start at 17:13
Today I got my wind up and tried small roses with the 2" quick rose cutters. (best to get back up on that horse and ride it) I Ran the gumpaste through the KA pasta roller on #6 thickness. dang they were almost like cobwebs, very difficult to handle. I ended up using toothpick to lift and press the petals as my fat fingers were too big. { I think I got in over my head with this project.}
I made fondant/tylose plaques to put the roses on, for cupcake toppers. But at least the petals aren't heavy. They are drying of the foam pad.
You did great!!!! Look how pretty the petals are? I know at first the thinner petals are a little harder to handle but look at the difference. I use a palette knife to move mine around and keep cornstarch on the ends of my fingers if they are sticky.
GREAT JOB!
Thanks @JWinslow #6 is.....very thin....whew. But the look is nicer. Perhaps I could let the cut petal piece sit on the foam pad for a minute to dry, before I try to wrangle it onto the bud. It may be less floppy and firm up a touch. I'm in new territory here. I can spot the first rose in the bunch, pretty easily. lol. It's a little caterwhompus.
It's hard to picture in my mind how you can run a petal dust brush on these fragile edges. I can see why @winniemog says to dust from the outside. It would be the outside of the curve and probably safer for the petal that way.
The Robert Haynes tutorial is 45minutes long, I'll have to catch it tonight.
these are standard cupcakes, devils food with caramel SMBC, & it shows how small these roses are. Doubt if I'd ever make these tiny ones again.
someday I need to buy some lighting for photos, It gets so dark here in Alaska. I took the photo above, (on the blue mat) in the middle of the sunshine. Big difference. Photography is not just point-and-snap when it comes to your professional cakes I think.
AHi MB I see that the paintbrush question was answered but for what it's worth I have around 50 brushes varying in price from a frw pence to a few pounds! I use the cheap ones for dusting and the expensive ones for detailing. I usually give them a little tug since I don't want any moulting. I do also have a make up brush (for applying blusher) which is useful for large areas. Kathy
Quote:
The Robert Haynes tutorial is 45minutes long, I'll have to catch it tonight.
That's why I said to start at minute 17:13. It's the part just about leaves.
As far as dusting the fragile petals - A light touch and a soft brush and you should be fine. With the exception of a red rose, all my petals start out white Most of my petals are wired so I dust before I assemble making it much easier.
You can absolutely let your petals set a bit. I do it all the time if my gum paste seems on the moist side. Now you're noticing details about your roses - Lady you are on your way :) A little hint for you. When applying rose petals for the first couple of rows try and make the top edge of the petals are at the same height as the center then you can let the larger one come down a bit. They won't be, "caterwhompus" as you said. I am very excited for you - can you tell? 
@DaysCakes thanks for the info. I can see where you would build up a collection of brushes if you are making different kinds of gumpaste flowers. I do have a blush brush in my kit also. I had been using it to dust off fondant pieces, so that will come in handy.
That's why I said to start at minute 17:13. It's the part just about leaves.
As far as dusting the fragile petals - A light touch and a soft brush and you should be fine. With the exception of a red rose, all my petals start out white Most of my petals are wired so I dust before I assemble making it much easier.
You can absolutely let your petals set a bit. I do it all the time if my gum paste seems on the moist side. Now you're noticing details about your roses - Lady you are on your way :) A little hint for you. When applying rose petals for the first couple of rows try and make the top edge of the petals are at the same height as the center then you can let the larger one come down a bit. They won't be, "caterwhompus" as you said. I am very excited for you - can you tell?
Yes! I am also craving more information on this process. This has been one of the most satisfying discoveries in my delicious quest. and now............I'll watch the video.
Good heavens that's a lot of work for such a tiny flower......It's hard to believe that he turned a white gumpaste flower into all of those colors just by painting them on. And the glaze process, spooning it over the gumpaste was interesting. It also demonstrated exactly what @winniemog was explaining about coloring the edges.
It does explain how the big city sugar flower cake decorators need to charge thousands of dollars for their cakes with dozens and dozens of flowers.
A
Original message sent by MBalaska
It also demonstrated exactly what @winniemog was explaining about coloring the edges.
I'm so glad I didn't have to explain myself further! I was going to offer you a room to stay so I could show you rather than try to put it in words - and I know precisely how far it is from Alaska to Melbourne!
MB if you are having trouble getting your thin petals on to your bud, after thinning, veining etc., place your petals onto a piece of thin foam with a small hole in the middle. Then you can thread your bud through the middle of your petals and down through the hole and use the foam to help position the petal where you want it.
Those roses look really good, you're too critical of yourself!
The tiny ones are more difficult to do than larger ones since you don't have as much to hold onto when you're wrapping the petals. For larger ones you can let one row dry before doing the next so that the base that you're attaching the next row to is hard and you can really press the petals onto it.
You could try making the tiny ones on toothpicks, then you could wrap them around the base that's on the toothpick and remove it when it's been formed.
I dust all of my flowers when they're dry, so I can really go to town on them and it doesn't matter how thin the edges are.
Quote:
Woops just notice that you have not wired your roses. It's the wire that I thread through the hole.
@cazza1 didn't use wires on those tiny ones, I put them on a cocktail toothpick, so it would work perfectly. Thanks.
Quote:
Those roses look really good, you're too critical of yourself!
The tiny ones are more difficult to do than larger ones since you don't have as much to hold onto when you're wrapping the petals. For larger ones you can let one row dry before doing the next so that the base that you're attaching the next row to is hard and you can really press the petals onto it.
You could try making the tiny ones on toothpicks, then you could wrap them around the base that's on the toothpick and remove it when it's been formed.
I dust all of my flowers when they're dry, so I can really go to town on them and it doesn't matter how thin the edges are.
Thanks @costumeczar I'm on the right track and heading in the correct direction. The toothpick worked pretty well, I'm going to get some of the Japanese toothpicks that Nicholas Lodge recommends so that the rose base doesn't keep popping out when I'm working on it.
It's good to know that you can dust the gumpaste without breaking it to pieces. It just looks so fragile, delicate. I'll probably get over that hesitation as soon as I slam a few flowers with dust.
I had a cupped fondant flower former, made out of plastic that looks like a baby bottle tip upside down. I've used it on modeling chocolate roses. I took the scissors to the bottom of the tip, and cut those ends off. I put the former on a couple of glasses to prop it up in the air, and dropped the rose with the toothpick in the bottom, right down in there to dry. Since I was putting these on cupcakes with no wires. One of the toothpicks dropped out, but it was still easy to push up the rose with the cell stick.
would something like this kit be good for a starter kit, or it is just too much?
Amaybe -- I don't see any yellow and only one pink? the reds & oranges seem almost interchangeable -- I think it's a nice assortment but if you plot your course a bit and choose a few colors to correspond with your next projects you might fair better --
and you want to decide if you want these non-toxic aka not edible ones or get the edible kind "crystal colors"
Quote:
would something like this kit be good for a starter kit, or it is just too much?
Definitely get them, and if you can stretch to set B get that too, then you will have many more colours! I have them and they are FANTASTIC value for money IMO since you need such a little amount of dust. The same amount of colours buying the bigger, separate pots/vials would be more expensive. Set C I think is lustre dusts so you can do without that for flowers.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%