Hi Christina! Thanks so much for your thorough, thoughtful, and enlightening tutorials. Happy holidays to you! I'm a professional cake artist / pastry chef (specializing in custom wedding cakes) and on the subject of shop-bought vs. homemade stamens, I typically veer toward shop-bought stamens for commercial reasons. We spend so much time making sugar flowers overall that it doesn't make sense to spend a disproportionate amount of time on something like stamens. We do enhance the shop-bought stamens from time to time, by dusting them with custom petal dust colors, or by dipping them in sugar "pollen" etc (as you do in your anemone video -- love the black pollen!). I think that for me, it's a matter of looking at the flower as a whole and evaluating how much more value the client would perceive if we crafted the stamens one at a time -- namely, not that much. Instead, I think that choosing shop-bought stamens carefully -- with the whole vision of the finished flower in mind -- is not only commercially justifiable, but artistically too (because it gives me that much more pleasure when creating my flowers if I don't have to do too many very fiddly and repetitive things to achieve a satisfying final product). That's my thesis on the subject. Thanks again for your wonderful channel and contributions to the artistic community on KZfaq!

Thank you for another fantastic tutorial, I do make my own stamens as you know and I really love doing them. To know that I have made the complete flower gives me so much pride in the finished flower. I do understand that some flowers are so time consuming and It would be so much quicker to use readymade ones. I think your yellow flower is more lifelike than your purple one, however others will think the opposite to me 😘💕

I am glad to see how you make your stamens, thank you. :) Yes, I do make virtually all my stamens, I don't care for the commercial ones either. I go for realism, and do my best to make every flower look as much like nature did as I can so that means making even my centers. I don't make cakes, though I have done a few for friends on occasion so I can bake, but prefer to concentrate on flowers. I have contacted local bakeries and one is interested in my making flowers for specialty cakes, here in Northeastern United States, there isn't much call for that kind of thing though. So the owner of the bakery said I was welcome to bring in some arrangements to have for sale on consignment. I plan to make a 'dummy cake' so that I can show my wares on it as well as vases and wall arrangements. Therefore, I want them to look as good as possible and hold up to examination of others. Thank you so much, Christina, for sharing your tips and hints with us. Being you are in the UK and I in the northeastern portion of the USA, I'm not much in competition with you, and find your sharing very gracious. Blessings!

I love the details you add, they make such a difference to the finished work. Thanks for sharing. Mx

Gorgeous! So helpful tutorial, Christina! ❤️

Hello!! I'm from Brazil and I absolutely love all your videos, thanks for sharing!!!

First big like

Hi! For me, I love to make flowers..I find it relaxing😊 and whatever I can make myself, I do, whether it be gumpaste, fondant, stamens, etc. Your flowers represent you, so it's ok to do everything to make them beautiful💙💙💙

very nice , thanks for the tutorial ! Happy Holidays !!

Maybe making a few stamens at once? Stick the wire into foam, same hight and dip it at once 🤔

Thank you so much for the tutorial. I hope you’re still on this channel. I have a question: How do you get the porcelain clay to not stick to your working surfaces like the table, plastic folder and silicone mild? Mine is stuck to everything!

Nice work and outcome. I thought a few more petals would make it pop up . However it still looks nice and I really liked the technique you used.

Hi, love your flowers! Please could you tell me where you get your cutters from? X

Hi Christina 🙂 Thank you for posting such informative tutorials! I have a question about the paints you're using to color the petals; aren't some oil paint colors toxic and there not safe for direct contact on skin? Or are the ones you are using special and non toxic?