Gum Paste Petunia

List of supplies needed:
Cornstarch duster –Simply made out of a small wash cloth with corn starch in the middle, held together with a rubber band.
Gum paste
Flower centers
Petunia cutters
Yellow foam pad
Pliers/cutters
Cell board
Small cel stick
Petal vainer
Ball tool
Flower center tool
Flower wire

Cut your floral wire into 4 pieces and with a pair of needle nose pliers bend the tip down. Get two flower centers, fold them in half and inset them into the hook part of the wire. Tighten the hook with the pliers.

Color your gum paste the desired color.

Knead until you have a uniform color through out.

Pinch off a small piece to work with.

Roll out with a finger to get a cone shape.

Turn and pinch the bottom on the cone in order to form a Mexican hat.

Lightly dust your board with corn starch.

Use small Cel Stick to roll out the sides.

Roll out the sides at the same time thinning out the center cone.

Check you progress with the cutter to make sure you have enough rolled out.

Cut out your flower

Place on the foam pad and thin out the petals from the outside.

Turn it over and make the center indentation with the center tool. You would do this holding it in your fingers and shaping the bottom part of the flower but I needed that hard to take the picture!

Use the small ball tool to smooth out the inside of the flower. Start in the center of the indentation and pull out.

Using the vainer tool, roll it over each petal to get the veins.

Push the center wire down the middle of the flower.

Pinch the bottom of the flower securing the wire in place. Dry it standing upright, I use a big piece of styrofoam to hold them up right, just pierce the styrofoam with the wire and it’ll hold it.

Additional supplies needed:

Fully dried gum paste flowers

Petal dust

Dry paint brush

Floral tape

Scissors

Make sure that your gum paste flowers are fully dried and that you handle them with great care. Gum paste flowers are very brittle when dried and can brake easily. I leave my flowers in their drying place until ready to assemble.

Gently shake your bottle of petal dust before opening, this will fully incorporate the dust, sometimes the colors are made up of different dusts and they will settle. I use the top of the bottle to blot of excess powder.

Dust the inside of the flower. You should always hold the flower in your hand while dusting to avoid breakage but I needed the other hand to hold the camera.

Then dust the outer part of the petals

Once all the petals have been dusted, steam them over a pot. This will set the color on the petals. If you are doing multiple colors or need a darker shade you will steam them and let them dry before adding additional dust.

Once the petals are fully dry from the steaming I wrap the stems in floral tape. Floral tape comes in white, brown and green. You can use whatever color you see fit in your arrangement. I cut my tape strips in half they are easier to wrap around the wire like this.

Start just below the flower and wrap around a couple of times so it grabs on and then move down the wire.

Trim the excess at the end of the wire.

Start grouping your flowers and use floral tape to hold together.

Add your leaves as you go along. (Jacques (Christine) has a tutorial on leaves in the forum where she shows how to use the cel board.)

Make two sets of flowers and group them together.

Finish them off the wrapping with floral tape and gently bend the flowers and leaves into place.

Finish off with a bow and place on your cake. This bow is made out of fabric, but it can be replaced with a gum paste dress bow as well.