A diversion into flowers

In July I was finally able to travel to Jennifer Dontz and Sugar Delites in Michigan for a week of instruction in sugarpaste flowers from the amazing Robert Haynes.  This class was rescheduled several times over the past three years, but flower makers are a patient lot.

During the week Robert taught his techniques to make a Cabaret Rose, Dusty Miller leaves, hypericum berries, a Dendrobium orchid, a Northern Magnolia blossom and bud, and a Darwin tulip.  I’ve been puttering with sugar paste for a few years now, but this will take my abilities to a new level.  I learned so much about both what to do and what to look for.

Cabaret Rose, Dendrobium orchid, hypericum berries, and Dusty Miller leaves

 

Darwin Tulip and Northern Magnolia

The very center of the magnolia is molded sugar paste, but we made the stamens ourselves. 

You can't see it in the main photo, but this is the inside of the tulip petals.  (I usually forget to take 'in-process" photos, so I'm pleased to have this!)  The original color of the paste is a dark burgundy, which we overcolored with the dark purple and the sky blue.  I wasn't expecting how well Robert's dust would cover a darker base.

 

This is a picture of the tulip's anther and stamens.  Another great exercise in crafting even the smallest things in sugar paste and I'm looking forward to trying this again and making the stamens look even more lifelike.

Jennifer Dontz sponsored the class.  She owns and runs Sugar Delites, which makes and sells the most amazing botanically correct cutters and veiners.  She generously let us students shop the “store” where she has her inventory for all of her online orders.  It's a bit like letting a kid into a candy store and we had as much fun!

Robert Haynes is an amazing teacher and is always thinking up new methods and refinements to his existing ones. Some of these were brainstorms in the middle of the night that he taught us the next morning.

I'll definitely be making roses and tulips again and will probably tackle the magnolia; Robert even taught us how to add the little hairs to the flower's husk.  However, my nemesis in this class was the orchid.  I have the impression that there are easier orchids to make and this one should have appealed to my ability to master finicky details, but mastery eluded me this time around.