Gelatine Flowers

Did anybody see the Kirstie's Homemade Britain programme last night, where she got to make Gelatine Flowers? 

Well I have made these many times in the past as part of my sugarcrafting skills.   So having watched the programme, I found some I made quite a few years ago, which were lurking in my cutlery drawer in the sideboard and took a photograph of them this morning.

As you can see these have a Christmas theme as I made them for my Christmas table all those years ago.  They have lasted quite well as I think they were possibly made before 2004 as I am pretty sure my Mum was alive when I made them!  (I really can't remember, but they are at the very least 5 years old!)  I made the two colours one for the males and one for the females.



Christmas Rose and Holly




Poinsettia & Holly

They are extremely simple to make - and were made exactly as shown in the tv programme, so if you missed the programme - catch up with it on 4 on Demand.

Mine were actually made with cotton covered wire from my cake decorating stash - probably about 30 or 33 gauge by the looks of it.   The Holly leaves were made by forming the wire around a holly cutter, and the christmas rose wire was wrapped around a small tube of food colour.  The poinsettia shapes were more freeform.  I prepared the shapes before dipping, but when they were dry I was able to give them some "life" with some gentle shaping before taping them together.  The centres were just flower stamens from my sugarcraft stock, and the poinsettia ones were touched with a little red colouring.

Hope this has inspired some of you to try making the flowers - it's great fun and very easy.    (There used to be a product many years ago that my daughter made flowers with called Fantasy Film - but I think using gelatine is even easier - and as you can see as they have been stored in a dry place (albeit amongst the "best" cutlery) they are still in one piece!

Mags