I have seen some amazing gum paste people cake toppers and I would LOVE to learn how to make them!! I am not sure if it is just trial and error or a more specific way to learn.

Here is a pic from boonenati that I love!!

Any ideas??

Gum paste better that fondant or candy paste??

Thank you for all the help!!
Katie

Oh those are so cute! I would love somebody to post answer to this too!

I"m not trying to sound like a smart aleck (but I have a feeling it's going to come out that way), but I bet if you PM'd her, she'd send you the instructions, or you can ask her to post them here (which would be great!!!). People here are pretty great about hsaring instructions, tips, etc.

I used to be an art teacher and have done a lot of caly work. If you have time do a search for polymer clay, or go to AC Moore and take a peek at a book or two. It is not too hard. ..

Circle for the head and cone for body, fill in with details, you can do it! Give it a try, and let us all see how great they turn out!

I agree. Most all of the fondant figurines are just a matter of breaking it down into shapes. There are tons of polymer clay books with instructions.

I've made gumpaste people, but not for cake toppers. I have done sculpted cakes and have made people to go with the custom 'themed' cakes. For instance: I sculpted a smaller (little less than a foot long) car cake. The bride ordered a smaller car like the groom's car.... his "baby". She wanted the red Mustang to have rust on the open hood and roof and have 4 flat tires. She wanted her 'fella' to be leaning over the engine with a 'plummer's butt' she said! (I had to ask her to repeat that. I knew what I considered a P. B.) It was as I thought.... the top of the crack showed above his jeans. It seems that when he worked on his dear car, his pants would fall a little; hence.... the "view". Well, I made the figure out of fresh gumpaste and gave him bluejeans and a tank top, as I recall. The bride said it was the hit of the reception. I even made his big black tool chest out of gumpaste. I worked 10 hrs. on the car and worked on the gumpaste figure for a few days, because of drying time. I still had the tiered wedding cake to do, also.

I had to make a large Mazda RX-8 for another bride's "groom". The car weighed about 30# (incl. masonite board). Her 'gumpaste' groom had to be wearing his favorite kaki colored Bermuda shorts, his favorite sandals, and his plaid shirt. I made him leaning over the fender with a little gumpaste waxing rag in his hand. I surprised the bride and made her, in her wedding gown, sitting... with her cat on her lap, waiting for him to finish; so the wedding could take place.

I used gumpaste to make the bride's dress and train, but used tule to make her veil. Made the bride's 'up do' hair style out of royal icing. Also, her pearl necklace and earings. The groom's clothes and sandals were made with royal icing. I even had the low pockets in the outside legs of the shorts, complete with button. I worked 17 'straight' hours on the large car (nothing touched the board, except where the wheels were) and I worked for several days on the G.P. bride and groom.

I had purchased some Wilton Gumpaste 'People' molds many years ago. I've tried to teach myself, just from the little booklet that came with the molds. The intricate features, in the molds, are really good. But.... I would love to find a how-to video. The gumpaste wants to stick in the mold. I tried brushing the mold w/cornstarch and also tried using oil. The head wants to stick and in pulling it out, it tends to stretch and become disformed very easily. I have to make several, before getting a good one. My figures have turned out pretty well... considering. There must be a better answer than what I am doing. The molds are 2-sided.... meaning a back and a front. An upper torso (includes the head), a lower torso (from the waist down, including the legs), and arms are separate. These molds are tricky to use, I think. The results are worth it, though.

I don't have a scanner, or digital pictures of my work.... just have some of the pictures of the Mazda one on one of those cheaper discs, when I had my pictures developed at Wal-Mart. I would 'post' them, if I had a clue on how to do that. All my other pictures are reg. prints and have gotten Wal-Mart discs made of my cakes, for the last couple of years (just in case I ever learned how to make use of them in that way).

I think the fondant people are cute and I love to play in that medium. Fingers were invented before people molds, after all. Also, a personal techinque is seen in each character... more unique, I think. The people molds are really great for beautiful features, though....face, fingers, toes, and etc. little 'details'. Now, if I could just find an easy way to get them to 'release' from the mold. The gumpaste figures dry 'rock hard', which I really like. Just takes time to 'dry' before putting clothes on them.

Just let your imagination be your guide ~ and have fun.
NightIcer

Katy emailed me earlier today, and this is the reply I sent her...."In my opinion gumpaste is the best for modelling people. Fondant takes far too long to dry and it's doesnt have the elasticity of gumpaste. Candy paste, i have never used but by seeing the recipe it seemed similar to our chocolate paste, problem with that it's that you can't paint on it, so you can't get features on it without having to stick coloured bits of
candy paste over it, and in my opinion this doesnt look very nice. I didnt do any classes or anything in modelling, i just started to experiment. I find that starting from the bottom up helps a lot, with a bride you'd make a cone first for the skirt, let that dry a bit, you need a skewer going up from the center so that you can then skewer through the torso and head,
once the cone is a bit dry, you can then put the skirt, and continue with the torso, arms and head etc. With the man, you make the legs and feet and let them dry before putting the rest of the body on. hope this helps"...
In addition to this I'd like to say that for the man you need to put a skewer as well to then do the torso head etc.
The bride's hair was done with a sugarcraft gun, and the grooms hair was just a piece of paste that was cut to shape and stuck on. The groom's glasses were made with flower wire, and the flowers on the bride's bouquet are silk flowers, and stemtex leaves.
Cheers
Nati

I just wanted to add that this topper of yours is magnificent Nati!

Nighticer, I wish you could find a way to post those pictures. They sound awesome!

Yeah, I would totally love to see nighticers pics...........if you have your pics on a cd why don't you just pop it in your comp. and upload them????

I used a combination of fondant and gumpaste to do my ducks that I'm working on for a baby shower cake this weekend. I found that it hardened much faster than just fondant,but was really easy to sculpt. Just another idea. I've never used JUST gumpaste...yet.

Ahhh.... finally got back online. I have dial up and it is sooo slow. Apparently they are working on phones lines, or at the box. Our hook up keeps popping in and out. (Frustrating, to say the least.) My neighbor's phone line is doing the same thing.

My computer is from 2001. I'm not the most computer savy person. I can find stuff on the internet real well and do emails and all that, but uploading ??? If I'm understanding correctly, can I copy/save some of those pictures from the Wal-Mart CD to a file on my computer and then somehow get them to this site? I have a few in my files already, but don't know from there, what to do.

I sent some of the car & gumpaste pictures to a friend of mine once, by using the little program that came with the CD. It let me resize them so it wouldn't fill up his inbox. I also sent them to myself. I found that they were fuzzier that the actual photos. He could see the pictures, but after I sent doubles of the actual prints to him, he agreed that the actual photos were much clearer. (Really makes a difference when you are talking about the delicate features on a gumpaste doll. He thought it was because of the quality of the Wal-Mart CD. I have a 'used' digital camera that a friend gave me last summer, but no mannual !! Have trouble just taking pictures with it; so I just use my 35mm, instead, for my cakes.

Does CakeCentral have some instructions that I could find out how to get them to you all? I have no one near me to help me with this; so I appreciate all the help I can get. I'm ''upload challenged" Maybe I could even put some of my wedding cake and ''custom cake' pictures in The Gallery. I love seeing other decorators' picts, so don't mind sharing some of mine with you all. I make gumpaste flowers also. It's sooo fun being with creative people.... birds of a feather and all that.

Thanks for your input, Linda and KHalstead. KarenOR, someone told me one time that Nick. Lodge mixed fondant w/ gumpaste to make his flowers. She said that it helped the gumpaste from drying out so fast while trying to make his beautiful creations. Was wondering, though; are the flowers just as strong as they are, using only the 'plain' gumpaste?

Also, thanks Nati, for the good info. on your handmade gumpaste people. They are so cute. Do you buy the powdered CK gumpaste mix or make your own? I love to learn different techniques. Thanks for sharing your talents with us.

Oh, FYI... I put a few drops of a flavored oil into my cornstarch shaker and let it marinade. Makes the flowers very 'tasty'. I sprinkle a little of this, on my work surface, when I roll out my gumpaste. My favorite oil is wintergreen. Smells great while your working, too.

If you're using molds, try sticking it in the freezer for a few minutes to harden up before you try to remove them (you still need to use some sort of release agent like corn starch, but you'll get a lot less deformation!)

This trick works really well with polymer clay!

Nighticer
I make my own gumpaste. I have bought ready made gumpaste before, but the quality cannot compare to the homemade stuff.
Cheers
Nati

Nati,
Do you have a special recipe for your gumpaste? I'm just getting into the modelling and love it?

NightIcer, if you want to send me a PM with your email address, I'll give you mine and then I'll post the pictures for you, if you can email them.

Thanks for the advise, MelC. I've put my chocolate molds in the freezer for quick release; never even gave it a thought to do that with the gumpaste, in the people molds. I will sure give it a try. Thank You so much. I would get so frustrated every time the facial details would get messed up and I would keep re-molding until I had a good one. Wow.... duhhhhh, on my part!

KarenOR, I will send a PM to you and give you my email address. I appreciate all your help. I have the Mazda cake and G.P. people in a file, I believe, but not sure about the size of them. Sometimes the Wal-Mart discs picts don't want to email. Have no clue why. But, I will give it a try. I'm a night owl, as my user name suggests, but Hubby wants to hit the hay, so I will sign off for tonight, since I was up late last night. Going to be a full day tomorrow, but I will get some picts sent tomorrow night. Husband is taking his turn to stay with his elderly mother tomorrow night. I can play with the photos then. TTYL