Tuscan Jewelry Bowl featuring The Italian Rose Swag Silicone Mold

Thanks again, to DTC Contributor, Joanne Wieneke, for this incredibly creative and most unique application of the Italian Rose Swag #1 mold! What a beautiful piece of sugar work.

Good Day My Fellow Sugar Enthusiasts!!! My name is Joanne Wieneke and it's my pleasure to present another tutorial for DTC.

The featured product is the the Italian Rose Swag#1. It is such a beautiful, versatile and a must-have mold! Just the intricate details and the elegant design will inspire you to create endless confectionery projects that will amaze your family and friends ...

I will present three techniques on how to use this mold and incorporate them all in one project.

Materials and Tools

Any size bowl of choice, dusted well with cornstarch

Gumpaste

Petal dust—any color of your choice, luster color (I used pearl and bronze)

Small amount of vodka

Soft Hair Paint Brushes , filbert, assorted size

Gum Glue (2-pea sized gumpaste dissolved in 1 teaspoon water)

Small paint brush for gumglue use only

Rolling pin

Pastry scraper

Small amount shortening

Lets make the Bowl....

Roll your ball of kneaded gumpaste on your mat approximately 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick and place it inside the cornstarch dusted bowl.

Smoothen the gumpaste inside the bowl as you would smoothen your cake when you cover it with fondant, make sure that the gumpaste can release easily out of the bowl. Using the pastry scraper, trim the sides and smoothen with your fingers. Let dry for at least 24 hours. Check every 8 hours or so if the gumpaste releases itself to the bowl easily.

After 24 hours, check the bowl if it has set and hardened nicely.

Now lets work with the mold…

Technique 1: Standard Way

Apply a small amount of shortening and apply a light film in the cavity of the mold making sure the fine details gets greased lightly. I do not recommend using cooking spray it is too gunky for the mold and sometimes affect the texture of the gumpaste.

Knead a small amount of gumpaste and shape it into a sausage, same length as the swag mold. Lay it on the mold and start pressing to get the details, then stretch it using a rolling pin.

Trim the edges with the pastry scraper and smooth the edges before releasing the gumpaste swag out of the mold. Trimming the sides before releasing the gumpaste eliminates possible distortion of the shape of the molded gumpaste.

With the excess gumpaste, knead it again and roll it out ¼ inch thick and with a small circle cookie cutter cut a circle which will serve as the base of the bowl. Set it aside to harden.

Position the gumpaste bowl upside down. Dab a small amount of gumglue on the sides and all areas of the back of the molded swag. Determine how you would want it positioned on your bowl. Adhere it with a gentle point pressure with the use of a paint brush so you will not disturb the details of the swag. Let it dry. Repeat the process for another swag that will be adhered on the opposite side of the bowl. Set aside to dry for at least 2 hours.

Technique 2: Extracting Filler Elements

Roll a small amount of gumpaste and pressing it inside the cavity of the mold, choosing either the leaves or any flower to extract a filler element. In this bowl, I chose to do the center rose to fill the blank space between the 2 swags endings.

Technique 3 : Achieving Impressions

Roll out the gumpaste thinly and lay it over the the cavity of the mold. Gently press with your thumb the gumpaste to achieve the impression. With any shaped cutter (I used a fluted round cutter) to cut the impression on the gumpaste. The cut-out impression actually looks like a doily.

I used the doily to embellish the inside part of the mold.

More Finishing Touches...

For a cleaner and more embellished look, you can roll and twiddle a gumpaste and adhere it around the lip of the bowl and the edges of the base. Use the handle of of your paintbrush to add a little texture to the edges.

Using your soft paint brush, you can start painting petal dust and luster dust over your decorated bowl. You can dab a small amount of vodka ( I use vodka because it buys you more time to play with the color) to help enhance the color of the petal and luster dust. You can brush the petal dust straight on to the gumpaste as the effect would likely be softer. To achieve a beautiful Tuscan look, I recommend dabbing a light shade dust, then blend in the dark dust and dry brush with a light color dust and finish it off with a pearl sheen or bronze luster dust.

The Finished Product....

Let the bowl dry for at least 48 hours before you can fully utilize it as your jewelry bowl.

For any questions, you can email DTC or my email thelittlecakedecorator@thelittlecakepatch.com or simply dropping a note at the comment space below.

My sincerest THANKS to Melissa for giving me this wonderful opportunity to work with her and her wonderful products…

Keep imagining and happy cake decorating!!!

Joanne W.