Here is a pic of the bottom of my gumpaste rose. I just posted a pic of the top of it in the gallery section.

I've only made about a handful of these and this is my best one. My question to all of you is- do your roses look like this underneath? My always tend to "ball" up on the underside. I've never put an entire spray (is that the word?) together so perhaps it would look better with all the greenery, in a group, and on top of cake???

I just feel like I need to improve quite a bit before I start to sell these. Also, I used Bakels and liked it much better than Wilton. All of my others were made with Wilton and I swore off of gumpaste flowers until I bought Bakels for use with bow making. I thought, what the heck, I'll take another crack at a rose. I'm glad I did. Sorry to all you Wilton gumpaste lovers out there but I hate that stuff compared to Bakels.

Sorry everyone- I will try to post the picture in the gallery.

Your rose looks great! And I'm glad to hear that you've discovered what most of us already know- Wilton fondant sucks!

My only suggestion would be to make your first petal rolled tighter so that you don't see the base.

Have you tried making them on a toothpick? Make your base, dampen the end of a round toothpick and insert it into the base. Poke it into a styrofoam block to dry!

Keep at it- you're doin' great!

Well, mine look like that - but I don't know what I'm doing! LOL I'd like to know too!

I think you rose looks fine. The only reason it doesn't look "finished" on bottom is you have added the calyx yet.

Good job!

I agree with the others -your roses look great! I understand what you mean about balling up though. I found that if I let my petals dry a bit on a spoon (for shape) and then put just the very bottom of the petal on the rest of the rose and propped it open with some cotton, it helps to keep it from getting that way. The key is to let it dry a bit before you attach it so that it doesn't just mold to the rest of the flower and then to keep it that way you use the cotton.

As for your gp, I was using Wilton's Gumtex to make my gp and it was awful and a nasty color. I just bought some tylose and used Nick Lodge's recipe... I will never ever ever go back! The Tylose is 1000x better. You might try it if you don't want to keep buying the premade. It's really really easy to make. Good luck with your roses!

Hey, it looks great to me! Get the bottom thingy on and it'll be perfect! Then come teach my please!

Thanks everyone. I'll keep at and definitely use the spoon and cotton ball ideas. I really think those will help.

And CarolAnn- is that a pic of you in your forum post? If so, I swear I know you from somewhere! I'd be happy to get together sometime and trade ideas or just practice techniques. PM me and we can discuss it further.