Sugar Paste Lily of The Valley Evolution

Lily Of The Valley

Gum Paste Lily Of The Valley

Lily of the Valley! Hum, it's such a little flower yet highly appreciated by many and underrepresented in most of sugar paste arrangements and cakes. I'm new at this artcraft, just a beginner. A few months ago I was asked to contribute with a cake for a 15th birthday party, I didn't have the money to buy it so I took it upon myself and made the cake with the help of a cousin of mine who happens to make great desserts.

To begin with I asked  the birthday girl what kind of cake she wanted and she sent me a picture.

Holy cow! the cake was decorated with  gum paste flowers. The good thing was that they were just roses. Please don't take me wrong, a good looking rose is hard to make but there are other flowers which are more complicated and hard to resemble the real thing.

I took this experience as a starting point, I began watching video on YouTube on how to make sugar paste flower and other sources as well, and it was during this process that I realized I wanted to learn more about this trade.

Upon my search for information I found that Lily of the Valley have a surrealistic representation when it comes to the sugar paste world.

Floral arrangement made with Lily of the Valley Flowers, leaves
 and Ivy leaves all made of Sugar Paste or Gum Paste

So...... here I am. I started working on the Lily of the Valley Project about 6 months ago and finally, after a lot of arduous work, trial and error, I'm getting a little closer to representing this flower the way it is meant in nature, I'm happy with the results but not totally satisfied.

Below are pictures of  the progress of my attempt to made Lily of the Valley on Sugar Paste (Gum Paste).

The first one just  few buds and a poor representation of the flower. I used a homemade gum paste and didn't works very well for me. The finish of the flower surface is very porous and I have hard time to give it a decent appearance were the wire is inserted.

A little improvement on this one but not what will make feel proud.

To get to this point I made a lot of Lily of the Valley flowers and spend more than I planned, I felt very frustrated to the point of abandon the idea of make this little flower. 

Gum Paste Lily of The Valley  

I believe this it's the best representation of the Lily of the Valley. I will continue working to improve and polish the appearance of the flower specially on the Stamen and Pistil and the suit
curvature on the tip of the petal
   



I will gladly accept constructive and positive criticism from the readers as to how I could improve the appearance of this beautiful and delicate flower. 

Thanks for reading. Joe