Ivy Leaves

Gum Paste Ivy Leaf Made with cutter and veiner

While browsing the internet, searching for sugar paste Ivy Leaves I found many many hand made samples of it. Some of them mimicking nature and other ones far from it.

But they all had one thing in common, they lacked realism. I love plants, and I have a green thumb, and one thing I 'm certain of is that not all Ivy leaves of one species are identical when it's come to shape and size.  

I guess the Industrial revolution somehow managed to work its way into the sugar paste industry in the 21st century. During the Industrial Revolution a movement emerged in England that later reached the  United States and the rest of the world called Art & Craft and the idea was to preserve the high quality and detailed works that started to fade due to   the mass production with the use of machinery and big factories. 

As hard we try to copy nature, I believe it is impossible to do it. I saw some flowers made with sugar paste that are works of art, almost achieving the natural look, and that is if you just use one of your senses, "sight" but the lack of movement gives it away, e.g: a real flower sways in the wind. When it come to touch, smell and hearing we already lost the battle. 

Going back to sugar paste Ivy Leaves here are some pictures that I took and would like to share of sugar paste Ivy leaves I made.

Gum Paste Ivy Leaves mixed with real leaves

The leaves on the left are mixed Ivy leaves, real ones and Sugar Paste leaves, in the bunch only 3 of the leaves are made out of sugar paste.

Gum Paste Ivy Leaves

The leaves on the right are all sugar paste hand cut, I didn't use a veiner, instead I painted the veins and made indentations on some of the leaves of the veins with a modeling tool. I used real leaves as models and not one is identical. 

Gum Paste Ivy Leaves

In these leaves  I used a commercial Ivy leaf cutter ( 6 sizes)  and veiner.

In all leaves I used 3 different dust colors. I experimented with different store-bought brands and homemade Gum paste as well. 










I took these pictures with my phone and none of the pictures were retouched, only one picture was cropped.
Positive and Constructive comments are welcome. And I will enjoy very much to see another samples of Ivy leaves made by anyone of you reading this post.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks for reading.

I'd like to clarify that what I write is my personal opinion and based on my experience. I'm self-taught.