a gerbera daisy tutorial for sally b.

Sally B. requested a tutorial for gerbera daisies, so here it is!!

Things you'll need:

- 20 gauge wire
- gumpaste
- gel colours
- daisy cutters - smallest, small and largest (I didn't use the medium one)
- water or gumglue
- dresden tool
- ball tool
- paint brush
- apple/fruit tray
- aluminum foil
- petal dust

Step one: Prep your wires. Make a small hook at the end of your wires so that the gumpaste has something to grab onto.

Step two: To make the flower centre, roll out a nickel sized ball of green gumpaste. I used Sugarflair's gooseberry green... it's my favourite green. Dip your prepped wire in water or gumglue and stick the ball on top. Make sure the hook grabs the gumpaste. Pinch the bottom of the gumpaste so that it sticks nicely to the wire.

Step three: You can use a daisy center thingy to make an impression in your ball, or if you don't want to buy a daisy center thingy, you can use an exacto knife or scissors to make little snips into the ball. Let this dry.




Step four: Using the smallest of the cutters and cut out 3 of the flowers.



Step five: Ball tool the petals to give it a slight curl. Use the exacto knife or scissors to cut the petals in half.



Step six: Brush on a little water or gum glue onto each flower and stack them. Make sure petals are slightly offset from the one below so that you can see as many petals as possible. Brush a little water onto your prepped flower centre (step two) and thread the wire through the middle of your stacked flowers. Curl the petals around the centre and hang upside down to dry.



Step seven: Cut three of the next size up. Use the ball tool to curl the petals slightly. Brush on a little water or gum glue and stack them. Make sure you brush beyond the centre of the flower (I used purple water to illustrate).



Step eight: Brush water onto the bottom of your flower centre and hang upside down to dry. Only hang for about half an hour (depending on humidity and type of gumpaste). You really only want it to curl a little.



Step nine: Cut 3 of the largest flowers. Use the ball tool to curl the petals. Then use a dresden tool and draw a line on one set of the petals. Don't bother with the other two... once you stack it, it won't even show.



Step ten: Repeat steps seven and eight. This time instead of hanging the flower upside down, poke a hole in the apple tray and dry the flower on the tray. If the tray you have previously held oval shaped apples, turn the flowers ever so often so that it dries nicely. You can also play with the petals to give it some irregularity.



Step eleven: Once the flower is dry, dust in pretty colours.

Thing to remember... flowers are never perfect in real life - don't kill yourself trying to get perfection. If you have enough flowers or if you have something else for the viewer to focus on (say a chicken and a duck), no one will notice if a petal isn't perfect!



Have fun! :)