Using Faux cold porcelain for the first time

I was shopping in a online cake store last week for a rose veiner. While looking I noticed they sold cold porcelain. I want to try Modena cold porcelain. It is recommended by Alan Dunn, the famous sugar flower master and tutor. I would really like to get the book Modelling in cold porcelain by Tombi Peck, Alan Dunn. Unfortunately although the sugar craft store stocked Modena it is Out of stock right now! But they had a product called “Hearty Soft” it said it was a faux cold porcelain air drying modelling clay for flower making (and other crafts). It is like cold porcelain and is non edible.

This is the description and a link to where I got it. But it is available on ebay and Im sure plenty of other sugarcraft stores “Hearty Soft White Paste is a light faux / cold porcelain. Easy to use, it will not stick to your hands. An opaque paste, it is virtually unbreakable when dry. It can be rolled out extremely thin and can be mixed with Hearty colours to produce a coloured paste for use in flowers and modelling. It must be noted that all Hearty colours dry darker. Alternatively you can use your usual paste food colour.
Once dry it can be steamed to set powder colours and then glazed with confectioners glaze, or any other spray glaze you normally use. It is an non edible product and is suitable for flower-making, jewellery, figurines or any kind of craft project.” http://sugarcrafthawkesbay.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=110&products_id=1379

It was not expensive so I thought i would give it a try!

I decided to try my new veiner and make a rose.

I just made a simple rose like I have made in my tutorial, not wired.

I loved the fact you don’t use any glue. The petals gently stick into place and dry. Once dry they still have movement like real petals.

The only tools I used was a plastic bag, spoons and a veiner, plus some petal dust containers and foam to help keep petals in place while drying.

This is dry but you can touch the petals and they move and feel a bit like polystyrene, crossed with paper and real petal. You have to keep your surfaces really spotless if your working with white. I got a few flecks of petal dust in this and struggled to keep it from picking up bits. I am going to try colouring it with my rainbow gels.

I got my cakes decor apron. I won it for voting in the spring competition! Thanks so much cakes decor! I LOVE it so much!

Once dry I dusted its center and a little bit of each petal with rainbow dust spring green.

I am quite happy with the outcome and love the medium

I decided to attempt a un-wired free form open peony.

I made the center buds individually and stuck them together then then I coloured them while still not dry

Then made the petals using a plastic bag and my fingers. Then veined them and shaped them, leaving some too dry a bit of spoons. then attached these to the buds

I added layers of outer petals using the same method

And more outer petals lol

Then I left it to dry… It was late lol

Then once dry the next day I added the final outer petals. And left it to dry using everything I could find to keep the petals shapes lol. Using what you have on hand lol!

And here it is

I love this medium and still want to try cold porcelain, but I also love my sugar!!! So will be hopefully experimenting with all three. I am away on business for most of June and will be working long hours. I hope to take something and as I don’t need sugar glue etc I might take the faux porcelain. :-)