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How To Make A Gumpaste Stargazer Lily (Asian Lily)
Posted by Feefs
HOW TO MAKE A GUMPASTE STARGAZER LILY (Asian Lily) Photo by Avaie
Equipment needed:24/26g wire (white taped) Thin wire (very thin) Thick glue (cellogen/tylose etc) Ground rice/Rice flour - coloured Lily cutter & veiner Mould for drying petals Scalpel / exacto knife Rolling pin Balling tool Buttercup Yellow Luster Dust Orchid Pink Luster Dust Tweezers* note, I use white wire as the petals are quite fine and green would show through. 
PistolTo start with take a small ball of paste & roll it into a sausage shape. 
Once you have a the start of the sausage shape insert 24/26g wire up the full length of the sausage making sure you do not pierce the end. 
Work the sausage on the wire, working it down the wire to make sure it has a firm hold. There is no need to glue the wire before this step. You can roll with your hand, or alternatively use your balling mat as shown - this ensure that the pistol is straight and has no "finger grooves" from your rolling. 
Once it has thinned out nicely, measure it up to the length of the petal cutter - it needs to be no bigger than 1/2 the size of the largest cutter - this gives balance - anything longer than half will look odd. With your scalpel cut a top of the stamen with three cuts - like the "peace" symbol. - sorry tried to photograph this but it was too fine to show up. 
StamensWith the very fine wire - is finer that what you normally use, it is very very flexible and covered in cotton - most cake decorating stores will stock this. Cut 6 pieces approximately 10cm long. 
With your tweezers bend about 1cm from the end so it looks like a number 7.(see diagram (a)) 
Then at about 1/3 along from the bend, bend it back on itself (see diagram (b)). 
With the thick glue, dip the end of the stamen into the coloured ground rice (I have mine yellow, but if you look at real lilies, the stamens come in a multitude of colours). Shake off any excess. 
PetalsRoll out your paste, and cut out 3 small petals and 3 large petals. Make sure you don't roll the paste too thin - this is a flower that tends to look better if it has a little thickness to it - and it will give you less heartache with breakage if you don't make them too fine when it comes to colouring them. Then take a very small piece of paste and roll it into a ball. 
Then roll it into a teardrop/tiny sausage shape. 
And thread with 24/26g wire white wire. 
Place this onto the dusted base of your veiner and brush with a very small (and I mean very small) amount of glue. 
Place one of the pre-cut petals over, dust the top of petal then cover with top of veiner and press down firmly. 
Gently remove the petal from veiner and place on balling mat & ball the edges of the petal to make gentle ruffles. Some of these lilies are naturally very ruffly, others not quite so much - really up to you how frilly you want to make them. You will need to make 3 smaller petals and 3 larger petals. 
Find a container or shaping tool to lay the petals on. Make sure the curve is not to excessive or you will have great difficulty in holding the petals & taping them later on. As you can see, I have used a very high tech equipment of a Tupperware container! (I really liked the gentle curve it gave the petals). So as you can see anything can be used.At this point you need to leave the petals overnight or in a very hot dry place to dry. They need to be 100% dry before you go any further. Colouring & Taping! 
Now the fun begins! I found the best way to colour with luster dust is to leave the petals on the container that they have being laying on to dry. Some people prefer to hold them by the wires, some with the petal in their hands... I found that if I held the petals I would have breakage. And yes, I broke one this way also - that is why we should always make extras! This breakage, however, was care of my 2 year old "helping". Commercial lilies (ones you buy pre-made) will more than likely only have 5 petals - is cheaper and faster for them to make, however, the natural lily does have 6 petals. Unfortunately, this tutorial now has five petals! The same principals apply, you just need to tape in an extra petal which will become clearer as we go along. For the colouring - have a look at some real flowers - they tend to have green/yellow at the centre of the petal and colouring on the rest of the petal varies - some with alot of colour, some only a smattering... I've gone half way. After you have dusted the petals, there are two different ways to create the dots. This example is done with dots of food colouring gel with a broken toothpick (so it has a rough edge rather than a point). The alternative is when you are steaming the petals to use Orchid Pink Luster Dust and brush on a light layer over the still tacky petals. This was how I did the first petals in my photos folder. The dots are less obvious when looking at them, and as you can see, hardly come up in photos at all. 
The pistal needs to be coloured green/yellow from the base to up to about 2/3 of the length of it. The last 1/3 needs to be dipped in thin glue/cellogen and then dipped in the coloured rice flour mix. As for the stamens, I have left them white for this particular flower, but again, if you look in nature they can be pink, yellow, green - a variety. To colour, paint them with coloured dipping solution of your choice. 
TapingOnly use the glossy tape - not the crepe paper type - it has a much better finish for this flower. Firstly, tape down the length of the stamen wire to cover the green. Then tape the stamens to the pistal (stamens DO NOT need additional taping as you will have covered them). Take three stamens and line them to the top of the pistal and tape around to hold in place. 
Take the next three stamens and tape on the alternate side that you have just taped. Even move the stamens around the pistal. 
All the flower stems need to be taped in green - this not only makes it look natural, but it helps hold the wires together as you tape. Take one of the small petals and bend to the desired effect with teasers. 
Tape to the pistal/stamen combo; then add the other 2 small petals so that they create a "Y" formation. 
The petals need to be secure. To do this tape around the wires, then thread back through the middle (between petal and pistal/stamens) and then continue taping in the opposite direction. This is a little tricky, but you will find it will hold the petals nice and securely. Once you have taped the small petals, take the larger petals and tape as close to the smaller petals in the gaps of the Y. 
Completed! If this had six petals it would look much better, however, it could pass as a lily - just not competition level! Cut off the excess wire at the base leaving a bit to bend and help "stand" into place on cake or plaque. I hope this tutorial has helped - I am by no means an expert and if there is anything that needs to be clarified/explained better, please feel free to PM me. - Glitzy Rainbow Rose Tutorial Using Circle cutters
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