There are a few ways to make gumpaste Roses.
You can make the centers yourself out of gumpaste, you can use a mold to make the centers, or you can buy styrofoam centers. The advantage to the styrofoam centers is they result in a much lighter weight Rose......however, you do have to buy them and make sure you have them when you need them - this can be a problem sometimes, lol! Using a mold to make the centers has it's advantages too...it's a one-time cost and you just need gumpaste in order to make them.
Both of these also result in your centers being the same size (if you like that). I, being anal about stuff sometimes (ok.....most of the time, lol), prefer the mold or styrofoam route. So far, it's been styrofoam (which has resulted in me calling to order them and begging to get them in time). See....with styrofoam, I don't have to make the centers a few days ahead of time to let them dry. I simply put a little hot glue on the end of the wire and shove it into the bottom of the styrofoam center. They will cool and harden in a few hours (but I usually wait overnight).
Making your own centers, freehand, is of course the cheapest route to go. I feel it's the method with the most variability - I'm not very good at making things the same size, despite my anal-ness about such things, lol.
Once you have determined which method you want to use for your centers, you then have to contemplate the petals of the Rose. Here, again, there are different ways of making rose petals. Probably the least complicated is a 5 petal blossom cutter (JEM makes a good one). This is the method I was taught and have used to date to make my roses for competitions. You can also cut each petal out individually and attach them to the center (FMM makes great rose petal cutters). It is also possible to form rose petals from small balls of paste and using your fingers, thing and create the petal.
I have always used the 5 petal blossom cutter, but at a cake show a few months ago, one of the judges commented on my rose petals, and from the comment, it seemed that the judge thought they were individual petals (I took it as a compliment that the judge couldn't tell, lol). However, it got me thinking.....why not try individual petals? So, I decided with these roses, I would try them. We'll see how they come out, and if I really do make them all with individual petals, lol.
Today I glued the wires into the centers and taped the wires:
Yes, there are two different size centers........I apparently didn't count properly and was short 5 of the xs size centers, so decided to use the small size for the full roses that I'm making.
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So, in my infinite wisdom (ok.....stop laughing!), I thought it would be a good idea to try making roses differently than I ever have. For a competition. Yeah....not so bright, lol. I wanted to try making roses with individual petals, rather than a 5-petal cutter. I decided to use the three largest cutters of the FMM set (mentioned above).
I first cut 6 petals with the middle cutter from the set. One petal is for the first petal (the one that wraps around the center). Then the next two are attached in a spiral around the center. The remaining three are spiraled around the center also. I then cut four petals of the 2nd to largest cutter. These were also spiraled around the rose.
The flower looked nice, but I just wasn't happy with it. I just didn't look as "pretty" as some of my others. Here are my favorite roses that I have ever made (these were made with a 5-petal cutter):
After talking it over with my consultant (JEM for those of you who have been reading for a while), I decided to trash the rose with the individual petals and make my roses with the 5-petal cutter. They are prettier (to me), I'm used to making them that way, and (most importantly) I won't be happy if I don't, lol.
I got all the white roses finished today. They are medium blooms. Here they are:
and here's a close-up!
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Here are the red roses that I made. There are three different sizes of roses.
Here are the buds (one layer of petals):
Here are the smaller ones (two layers of petals):
Here are the larger ones (three layers of petals):
Here is all of them together:
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Dusting - it brings flowers to life! It was now time to dust all the roses I made. It took some trial and error to be really happy with the red roses....since they actually started out pink, I had to find a way to turn them red. I tried layering various shades of reds on them, but they just didn't look right. I then happened upon a container of Pointsettia (from Crystal Colors) that I had in a draw. I tried it on the roses and HOLY COW were they red!!! They were a vibrant beautiful RED! I dusted all of the red roses with it. Then started looking around for a darker red for the edges of the petals.......well I did not have one. So, I left the red roses as is.
It probably took an entire day to dust all of the red roses, and the red carnations (from a previous post). It was a beautiful day the day I was dusting the red flowers. It was so nice that I decided to open the kitchen window. Did I mention that the kitchen window was behind me? (Can you guess where this is heading???) Well, it was. There was a lovely breeze coming through the window the whole day. I was also sitting with my netbook on the table, watching old tv shows (A-Team!) while dusting. When I was finished dusting all the red flowers I noticed that my computer had a layer of red dust ALL OVER IT. Upon further examination.....the red dust was EVERYWHERE! The kitchen table, the floor, the stove, the counters, the sink, the DOG. I couldn't imagine how it got so many places - it never had before. Then it dawned on me that the window was open the entire time. The lovely breeze blew the red dust all over the entire kitchen! So, the lesson to be learned here is to not sit in front of an open window on a breezy day when you are dusting flowers. On the bright side - I probably did not inhale very much of it!
I apparently FORGOT to take pictures of the dusted roses...........the white ones were dusted with Super Pearl dust. Here is a picture of one of the full red ones (from it's place on the cake):
It's not your eyes playing tricks....the red really is that vibrant in the picture. It wasn't quite so vibrant in person, I promise :)
~Chelle
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