sugar flowers~

It's time to venture out of my comfort zone and attempt something I've never done before.

This time I'm giving gum paste a twirl and I'm going to attempt to make some sugar flowers.  My first try at it and I made up some little buds or filler flowers that I want to use on my creation ... whatever it may be when I'm done with this project.  I have an image in my mind ~ but to bring it to reality is a whole new story.

I have a feeling this project is going to take some time.  I wasn't happy with those buds at all once they set up and dried.  I could see that I needed to do more practicing on rolling the petals thinner and  cutting them cleaner so the edges weren't so rough ... plus I need to come up with some type of pattern to make them more consistent in size and shape. 

A few flowers a day ~ if I'm lucky ... and figure out just how to do this.  So far ... I've come to the conclusion this is going to take some serious practice.


Okay...
Now I really have no experience whatsoever with doing this.  I'm learning as I go.  I've been researching it on the internet and watching do it yourself videos.

One thing I have figured out quite quickly is how fast you have to work with this stuff.  The gum paste dries really fast and it doesn't give you a lot of time to play with it before it starts to set up and become hard like a sugar cube.  Also, I found that when you add a tiny little drop of water to two pieces to adhere them together... it also melts just like a sugar cube hitting a cup of hot coffee ... but I've already found the remedy for that.  It's making an adhesive of gum paste and water mixture ~ not straight water like I originally tried.

After a little more putzing with the gum paste ... rolling it ... tinting it ... trying to get just that right texture and feel to it I did make some calla lillies ~ or what I think resembles a calla lilly:

Baby steps ... 
This is going to test my patience for sure ... but I also think that once I get the hang of it ... this could be fun ... and could make some pretty awesome looking cake decorations!  Yes, my daughter wants sugar flowers on her wedding cake in August ~ so I have from now until then to perfect this project of making flowers with gum paste sugar.

Wish me luck.