4.) Putting the stamen and petal together
Once your petal is mostly dry, take your stamen from the foam block and apply a small amount of sugar glue around the base (next to the wire).
Carefully remove your calla lily petal from the cone cup, and thread the wire through the small hole you left when folding the petal. Get the stamen situated where you want it, and be sure the base is in contact with the inner walls of the petal so that it will stick once the glue dries.
Bend a hook shape in the opposite end of the wire, and hang the flower upside down on your drying rack (or a clothes hanger or the like) and allow to dry for 8 hours or overnight.
Viola! You’ve made a calla lily! If you’d like you can leave it here, or you can go ahead and paint it. Even white calla lilies tend to have a little green near their base, or around the edges of their leaves.
5.) Painting the calla lily
Using color dust is a little tricky at first, until you get the hang of it. Because it’s a powder, you’ll want to be careful it doesn’t get anywhere you don’t want it. Also, you may find that the limited color selection doesn’t really have what you want – for me, I ended up mixing pink and purple to find the shade I was going for.
I like to prepare my surface for easy clean-up by laying a few sheets of paper towel over everything before I begin. Color dust will wash off of most surfaces with soap and water, but is best to keep it contained if possible.
Starting on the inside of the flower, where I want my color to be the darkest, I dip my brush into the dry powder and then rub it around. You’ll want to focus on the areas where you want the color darkest, and then feather out to the edges to fade or blend.
When changing to a different color, always use a clean brush. When painting the outside of the flower, try to hold it upright or at an angle (not upside down) so color powder doesn’t fall where you don’t want it. You may need to blow, or gently tap off, excess powder onto your paper towel.
Once your flower looks how you want it, you can leave it as is, or you can steam it. Because the color dust is a powder, it may get on your fingers or anything else that touches it. By lightly steaming the petal, the color sets a little more firmly and is less likely to smudge off.
You can do this (carefully) with a clothes steamer, or over a pot of gently simmering water. Just be sure the water isn’t splashing up out of the pan.
Holding the flower by the wire stem, dangle it above the pot of water so that the steam hits the inside of the flower. Hold it here, moving it slightly so that the steam can get everywhere, for 15-20 seconds. Turn the flower to its side and rotate it around so the outside can get steamed as well – anywhere there’s color.
You don’t want to steam the flower too long, as the gumpaste will become sticky and pliable again – just a few seconds. it will look glossy and wet, and then you’re done. Hang it up to try before handling.
Be very careful not to touch the flower while it’s moist! Touching any of the painted areas will remove the color completely – this can be retouched after the flower has dried, but may not look quite right – better to avoid it all together.
6.) Finishing
Once your flower is dry, you’re finished! You have a gorgeous sugar flower to show off to your friends, or decorate your next confection with. The wire can be clipped, or you can form a long rope of gumpaste and thread it over the wire to make a stem. If you intend to insert the wire into a cake or other dessert, wrap it well in floral tape first so no metal is in contact with the food.
For transporting the flowers safely, I found a plastic box or tub lined with a thick foam pad worked well. Just be sure to keep it flat, and keep the flowers in a single layer.
(Flowers set in a plastic tub lined with foam, for safe transport/storage)
The whole process may sound a little tricky at first, but keep in mind that I had never done this before… and after a few days of working on it, I had a growing collection of sugar flowers, and each one was better than the last. If you’re interested in getting into gumpaste, I would recommend starting here – calla lilies are easy enough to get the hang of, but use a lot of the same techniques you’ll need for more complicated things later on.
