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Sugar Flowers

Sugar flowers can be made by anyone with a basic knowledge of sugarcraft techniques. Others are more intricate and the accuracy of the colouring or shading can be the key to making the flowers look realistic.

For your information, reproduced in this section are instructions and tips on how to make some varieties of flowers.

Take a 24g hooked wire and a pea size piece of petal paste made into a teardrop shape. Push a cocktail stick in the fat end and open up a cup shape. Push hooked wire in the other end and glue. With a ball tool, make a cup on the top and leave to dry.

Roll out a small amount of petal paste, using white fat to stop any sticking to the board. Using a snowdrop cutter cut out a set of petals, soften the edges and stretch the paste a little on a sponge.

Frill the edges by using a cocktail stick on each petal rolling from the middle outwards around the edges thinning petals. Glue the centre of the wired cup, support the petals, and then press the centre into the cup with a ball tool so the petals flop over and each petal hangs down. Leave to dry.

Cut another set of petals in the same way, cutting a ‘v’ out of the tip of each petal. Soften the edges and frill in same manner as before. Frill the very edge with the bone tool and with the veining tool crease the centre of each petal. With veining down-most press with glue onto the top of the wired cup shape with ball tool, pressing each petal together. Leave to dry.

Cut another set of petals extremely thin so that you can read through the paste. Nick each petal with knife in between each petal, frill again and vein the centre with a knife. With veins uppermost, push centre onto wired flower but lift petals up this time and scrunch together a little so they stick up in the centre. Leave upside down to dry.

Mix yellow powder colour with alcohol, paint two lines on each of the bottom most petals. Paint blue (Iris) in the centre and other side of the yellow lines. Dust flower with light blue. Put petal dust on kitchen paper first and load brush from there. Dust edges very lightly. Steam over a kettle to fix colour.

Photos above from "Sugar Flowers from Around the World" by Nicholas Lodge, published by Merehurst Limited ISBN 1 85391 0740

TOP TIPS

Use cornflower to clean brushes to avoid getting brush wet.
You can steam a whole bouquet of sugar flowers at once to save time.
If you want coloured wires to match whatever you are doing, put colour onto damp Babywipe, pull white wire through the colour on the cloth and it will stick to the wire. Let it dry. Saves a lot of money, coloured wires are much more expensive than white ones.

Correa (Australian filler flower)

Take 4 very fine white stamens and fold, tape onto 26g wire leaving 1/3^rd sticking up. Roll cigar shaped piece of petal paste about 1/2inch long. Push in a cocktail stick to open up throat and cut four equal petals round the edge. Nip each petal with the softest part of your finger and thumb, curling each petal over forefinger with thumb. Glue on wire leaving the stamens sticking 1/4inch out. Open out the stamens a bit so they are not so clumped together. Make the back long down the wire.

Dust flower with very pale green (orchid white). Paint a small rim of brown around the very base of the flower’s neck. Dip stamens in glitter. Steam the flower to set colour.

Leaves

Make petal paste green (euphorbia). Roll out paste and cut out leaf shape. On a 28g wire glue the end, using a minute piece of paste roll it around the top of the wire so it makes a fine ‘cotton bud’. Place the leaf on the veiner, put the wire on the leaf and press veiner together. The wire then adheres to the leaf with a very fine clean join. This can be done with any size leaf.

Always dust leaves a shade darker than the paste. Support leaf with finger underneath.