Cake Decoration Flowers With Clay Or Porcelan?

[Gabi]

Hello fellow pottery artists,

I am wondering if someone has tried to use cake decoration techniques (to make flowers etc.) on clay or porcelain bodies.

My neighbor does the most beautiful cup cakes decorated with roses, lilies and different other flowers and I was wondering if this can also be done with clay.

 

It would be a good idea of doing wall plagues and other decoration things.

Has anyone tried this yet?

 

Thanks for any comments.

Regards Gabi in Perth/Australia

[Pugaboo]

I have used the fondant tools, cutters and textures in clay and they work fine. I have some food decorating press molds as well that I use for small leaves and flowers. I use little loafers stoneware clay and it does really well with all of these and if it seems to want to stick in a mold I dust the mold with cornstarch first so the clay releases easily.

 

Not sure if this helps or not.

 

Terry

[minspargal]

If you make a slip of your clay, you can probably use your cake decorating tips. They will be very delicate in the greenware state. I had a friend who dipped oragami paper cranes in her slip and fired them. The paper burned away and she had delicate clay cranes.

[SShirley]

I have done it. I burned up several mixers trying to make slip, but, it worked. Be sure to sieve the slip to avoid as many lumps as possible. It is tougher to squeeze clay slip than icing, though.

[BeckyH]

The clay would have to be of the same consistency as a good icing. You can get disposable piping bags, which would make your life easier.

[oldlady]

or a strong plastic bag with the corner cut off.

 

more on making slip later................

[Celia UK]

I've used icing plunger cutters with clay, to good effect - leaves and flowers. This small bud vase is unfired in this picture.

[erinwells]

If you already have a nice deflocculated slip **it has darvan, soda ash, or sodium silicate in it** then you can make a slip that can be piped on by adding epsom salt. The salt acts as a flocculant that thickens the slip until it is workable and, because you have added the deflocculant it is now super-dense and resistant to cracking. Just be sure to add salt slowly, stirring for several minutes before continuing to add more. For a quart of slip you might only need a tablespoon of epsom salt.

 

...also..using the super-desnse slip to connect slabs works like ceramic super-super glue! 

[Gabi]

Hi all,

thanks for all your infos and tips.

I will try one day.

 

There are lots of videos on youtube how too make the flowers just search for sugar flowers.

 

Btw: here are some pictures of my work so far also with some flower tiles I had made a while ago.

http://gabi-glaezer-pottery.blogspot.com.au/

 

Just not enough time to do all the things I would like to try.

 

Thanks and cheers

Gabi

[Benzine]

I worked in a supermarket bakery one summer.  I learned a few of the techniques, but never really got good at them.  When talking about writing on the cakes, I told the manager my handwriting is God-Awful, and he said, that won't matter, because it's not really like writing.  I disagree.  Writing with the icing, resulted in the same horrible text, as when I would write normally. 

 

As Pugaboo mentioned, I would imagine that quite a few fondant tools and techniques could be adopted for clay work.

[Bob Coyle]

You can use all of the cake decorating techniques and piping tips to decorate a pot. You need to make sure the piece dries slowly otherwise any "vines" or longer "stems" or "leaves" you pipe onto the surface of the green clay may shrink too fast and crack off. bag it up and be patient.

 

Previous posts have stressed the importance of a heavy well formed slip for the pipping bag. This will require some trial and error.

 

Practice your piping on the outside of a  plastic bowl  till you get the hang of it,and just scrape the slip back into your container and mix it back in.