Continuing our Quick & Easy Sugar Flower Tutorials Collection, this gumpaste cosmos tutorial incorporates “thread stamen” which is a great technique to learn and will stand to you for lots more sugar flowers, if you want to expand your repertoire beyond the more popular sugar flowers like roses, hydrangea & peonies.
Gumpaste cosmos flowers also lend a more botanical look to your sugar flower arrangements when blended with the more traditional favourites.
Gumpaste Cosmos Tutorial: Materials
- Cosmos petal cutters: 3.5cm and 4.5cm
- Gumpaste
- Strong white polyester thread
- 30-guage white wire (or as close as you have)
- 24-guage white wire
- Florists’ tape
- Plum and black petal dust
- Paintbrush
- Edible glue
- Yellow petal dust
- Powdered gelatine
- Rolling pin
- Foam pad
- Ball tool
- Dresden tool
Gumpaste Cosmos Tutorial: How-To
To make the cosmos centre, take your polyester thread and wrap it around three fingers about 25 times.
Place the ring of thread on your work surface and twist it into the figure eight shape.
Then bend the two halves over each other to create a thicker ring of thread.
Next take a 30-guage wire and bend it in half through the center of your circle of thread, twisting at the bottom to secure the wire in place.
Next take some florist’s tape and wrap it around the base of your thread to help the thread stand upright. Continue the taping down to the end of the stem.
Then take a scissors and trim the threads down to about half an inch.
Blend some plum petal dust with some black and use this to dust the thread/stamen.
Next use a paintbrush to dab some edible glue on the top of the threads.
Make some yellow pollen by mixing a blend of powdered gelatine and yellow petal dust. Dip the ends of the stamen into this pollen mixture and set aside to dry.
To make the cosmos petals, roll your gumpaste into a sausage shape and place horizontally on your work surface.
Using your rolling pin, roll the gumpaste away from you, keep the edge closest to you a bit thicker to insert the petal wire, then roll the end furthest from you a little thinner.
Cut out 4 small petals and 6 large petals.
Using 24-guage white wire cut into quarters, dab one end into edible glue, wiping off the excess, then insert the wire into the thick end of the petal. Pinch at the base of the petal to secure it to the wire.
On a foam pad, use your ball tool to thin the edges of the petals. Then using the thin end of your Dresden tool, draw vertical lines along the petals to creating veining.
Then leave the petals to dry overnight.
Once the petals have dried and before you start assembling, a handy tip is to tape the wires with floristry tape. This gives the wires a certain tackiness which prevents the petals from spinning loosely around the center when you are taping the flower together.
To assemble the flower: take your cosmos center and holding the first small petal, tape it to the center just under the yellow stamen.
Continue taping the other 3-4 petals around the center to complete the first row.
For the second row of petals, tape the first petal in the space between two petals of the row above. Continue taping the remaining 5-6 large petals around the flower.
Optional dusting: using a flat edged paintbrush, dust a deeper shade of pink along the top edges of the petals.
