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What are you making?

You can roll gumpaste really super thin snakes and add the X to it and then brush silver color all over it or spray paint it.

Does it have to stand up or lay flat?

If it can lay flat or pressed into the side of the cake, then I'm sure fondant or gumpaste would work. Just paint it with silver luster dust mixed with lemon extract or vodka and it should look like barbed wire.

I am making a western theme, and I am wanting to wrap the bottom teir in barbed wire, I thought it would be cute but now I am just frustrated.

It can actually be brown, rusty...

Is this a stupid idea?

no It isn't a stupid idea!! I put MMF barbed wire around a cowboy hat I made.

I think it'd be really cute. I'd do the gumpaste or fondant rolled really thin like everyone's saying, and add little spikes to it w/ royal. You could make those in advance, then once you wrap the cake in the wire, just attach w/ more royal. I think that'd work! Good luck.

it is on the second page of my photos.

Maybe the thin licorice rope? Could you slice little cuts in the rope to make the jagged pieces that stick out?

wow all i can say is good luck, cause besides the thin strings of MMF or gumpaste I cant think of anything else to use - but if you pull it off, i think it will look great

I was thinking the same thing with the licorice rope. You could even tie it into knot very easily. Get the black kind and paint with luster dust.

you can color the bottom tier in green fondant or buttercream. Marble your fondant brown & dark brown to make it look like rust. Roll out several long very thin snake like pieces and wrap it around the hole bottom layer. You can add the X's before you wrap it on the cake. I can see it in my head. I just hope I explained it ok. It will be adoreable I am sure.

I would use licorice shoe strings. Tie small pieces around a long one. The ends sticking out would look like the barbs. Use silver luster dust to shine it up a bit. Other than that I can't think of a thing. Using fondant would work but it would take a long time.

LOVE THE LICORICE IDEA....I LOVE YOU GUYS!

I just PM'd someone (froggyjustjumping) on another board to ask if it was okay to post her photo here. I'm awaiting her reply. She did a cowboy hat with barbed wire and entered it into a state fair competition. It was so good.

Basically what she did was to take a mixture of gp/fondant and roll two lengths out of them and then twist them together. Then she took thin pieces and make little knotw or ties with them over the thicker twist. It was really well done. I hope I explained the technique okay.

I'm going to check to see if she got my message yet.

Here's an actual photo of barbed wire. This should help you (especially to explain my explanation of how froggyjustjumping did hers).

I have a western theme wedding to do this summer, too! I thought I was crazy to agree to doing barbed wire on it, but I'm going to do it from GP and paint it.

Actually, mine has to be "swags", if you can believe it...

Post and let us know how you did it and how it turned out. I'm already nervous about how it'll work for me.

Last month I went to the DOS in Tulsa and there was a lady there who was making barbed wire out of fondant or gumpaste. Here are the two pics I took showing how to make it. I hope these help. She just attached the pieces with RI.
Carrie

who knows when you'll need barbed wire

Here's the link to Beth's page (froggyjustjumping). As you can see, it's done the same way.

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/froggyjustjumpin/Cakes_by_Beth/Competition%20Cakes/?action=view¤t=100_0479.jpg

like the barbed wire for our wedding cake!

This is a picture I found in a magazine it has barbed wire but it is piped with BC.

Ooh, I wonder if you could do it with Sugar Veil?

great topic and ideas!

Those barbed wire pics all look great! The licorice idea sounds good too!

I have a question for you people who say you're "saving" this. Is there a way to save threads though a link of some kind? Or are you just using your computer's "favorites" button?

Hi all and thanks Sugar_Plum_Fairy for the kind comments on my cake. The barbed wire that I made is posted in my gallery pictures here and so is the cowboy hat that I used it on. I did roll out a mixture of 50/50 fondant and gum paste. I used an ice pick to wrap the barbs around and let them dry. Then I rolled out two more long lengths and slipped the barbs on one strand and then twisted the two together. What I have learned since was to use an item I picked up at Hobby Lobby, it is a Clay Extruder in the Polymer Clay section. Thin your fondant with crisco and coat the inside of the extruder with crisco and you can just press out the strands of fondant. The extruder costs about $10, but there is a 40% off any one item on the internet for Hobby Lobby right now.

i am interested in how the "buttons" next to the barbed wire were made.  Could you please tell me.