Gumpaste blossoms

Kay, so here’s my first blog about the gumpaste flowers. (See, I told you it was coming.) You can thank my friends Carolyn & Jewelle for this getting done. They came over today & made peony centers & helped with rose buds saving me huge amounts of time I'm using to catch up on things I've been putting off like this post. The pictures aren't all great and some of them wouldn't rotate even though they were rotated in Picasa so I don't know, but at least I found my camera. I’ll give directions for a generic fruit blossom this time & follow up with a rose and then an orchid. I’m also giving a link to a really good video on doing orchids because sometimes it’s just easier to “get it” if you can see someone else doing it & this is a pretty good video. There are various things you’ll need for each one, but some of the tools/equipment you’ll need for all of them. I’ll list the shared tools at the beginning with how much they cost me and then list any additional tools needed under each specific flowers’ instructions. So….are you ready?



General supply list:
Gumpaste $8.99
Binder (I use 1 tsp tylos powder mixed w/ 2 T water in a cleaned out McCormick spice jar. You can also make a binder by putting a chunk of gumpaste into the water & shaking or letting it sit until it’s dissolved, but I don’t really know amounts for this method.)$2.79 for 6 grams & still haven’t used up
Floral wire (the gauge depends on the flower) $1.27 per pack
Cornstarch (I put ½ cup in a new knee-high nylon stocking doubled around itself. It’s perfect for dusting just the right amount & you can just keep it in a snack-sized ziplock w/ your other stuff.) $.78 per box
A small rolling pin (you can use a regular one, but it makes it harder. You could also use a pasta roller if you have one.) $ um I can’t remember……$3.5 ish maybe
Ball tool $4.49
Paintbrushes (nothing fancy needed here, just not plastic bristles) $1.99
Small cell board (optional for a lot of things but really necessary for any leaves/lilies/orchids or anything with a vein running up it.) $24.49
Petal dusting powder in whatever color you want about $3.5 per color
Floral tape in either green or brown depending on what you want the stem to look like $1.27
A block of Styrofoam $1.69
Cel pad with Mexican hat holes in it (It’s a foam pad with little holes you use for shaping & thinning the petals/leaves) $14.99
Grand Total Damage: $61.41 + tax ouch I know. Sometimes you can find deals & sometimes there are people who are getting out of cake decorating who will sell you their stuff really cheap if they don’t just give it to you. Keep in mind though that everything but the gumpaste is something that you’re not going to have to buy again. Even the gumpaste you’re not likely to need to buy again for quite some time so long as you keep it stored airtight because you don’t use much at once. Here’s a picture of most of the general supplies & some of the flower specific supplies.

Okay, we’ll start with a blossom. You’ll need the things listed above plus: white button thread $1.27, 1 T cornmeal ? I dunno $.05, gauge 24/26 wire (already listed), brown floral tape (already listed) & a 5 petal blossom cutter $5 for a set of three sizes
First, cut your wire into 5” sections (no need to be exact here) & tape them with the wire. Cut one for each blossom you wish to make. To tape them, twirl the wire while stretching and pulling the tape in a downward angle. The tape should be tightly wrapped around the wire without buckles or gaps along the stem. Tear it off at the bottom.
Wrap the button thread several times around three fingers creating a loop. Slip the loop off your fingers & cut it in ½ creating several 2-3 inch pieces. Pick 8-10 of these pieces & fold them in half over the end of one of your taped wires then fold the end of the wire over them and twist it back onto itself.

Choose the desired length of your stamens (I usually go about ½ inch for blossoms but it depends on the variety of flower. I think the one in the picture is longer.) & cut the threads. Dip just the tips of the thread into your tylos mixture & then dip the tips into the cornmeal. (If you want a pollen color other than yellow, just mix a little gel food coloring into the cornmeal. I also added a small amount of cocoa powder to the “pollen” for the peony centers to get the right color. Rub it between your fingers to mix the color in using gloves unless you like colored fingers. The color won’t be ‘uniform’ but it’s not in nature either so don’t worry.) Put your little stamen stick into the styrofoam block until it dries. (Usually an hour.)

Knead a marble sized piece of gumpaste until it is soft & pliable in your hands (dusting with a little cornstarch if it sticks to you). Roll it into a ball & then shape a little ’mexican hat’.

Put the top of the ‘sombrero’ down one of the holes on your cell pad & roll out the rest until it’s as thin as you can get it. Use your petal cutter to cut out the blossom shape making sure that the top of the ‘sombrero’ is in the center. (Sometimes this is easier to do by taking the piece of gumpaste out & flipping it over & centering the cutter over the little part that sticks up.)

Once it’s cut out, use the large end of your ball tool to thin it a little more if needed. (You can shape it into a dogwood blossom by snipping a little cut at the tip of each petal. It will separate a little as you thin & shape it.) Roll the tool towards the center of the blossom over the gumpaste to create a natural curl towards the middle. Use the small side of the ball tool to lightly frill the edges if you want frilled edges (I did.)

If needed, separate the different strands on one of the ‘stamens’ with a toothpick. Dab a little tylos mixture on the ‘stamen’ piece you made right where the thread & wire meet. Thread the ‘stamen’ through the top center of the blossom making sure that the wire goes through the little point at the bottom of your blossom. Pull it down just until the wire is hidden & gently squish the gumpaste around the wire at the base. Gently shape the petals to close in or out depending on the look you’re going for. Stick the end of the wire in the Styrofoam & let it dry 24 hours. (If you want it to dry ‘closed’ it’s best to hang it upside-down to dry.)
Once it’s dry you can dust it. This is the kind of thing you just get as you go along. Several things affect the way the petal dust will look on your flowers: how much dust you put on the brush (remember to tap it on the side of the container before you dust), the size/shape of your brush, how fast/slow you brush, the direction you brush in. It’s usually-but not always-best to brush in one direction on the petal. I go towards the outside edge of the petal so I don’t get excess dust where I don’t want it. If I’m trying to highlight some texturing I might do a light brush from side-to-side across the petal. You can dust just the tips of the blossoms, just at the creases where the petals meet, just the centers. You can work from a picture you’ve seen or just get creative. To make it more realistic looking I usually dust the bottoms of petals/blossoms with a small amount of color that matches the color of floral tape I’ve used. (If it’s green I dust the very bottom with green & then add a teeny tiny bit of yellow above that.) Voila! You have a blossom. It seems like it takes forever (& it kind of does) but it takes less time the more you practice.