Gumpaste Shoe How-To: Tips and Template

I just recently got a great email question regarding how to make the Manolo Sedarby D’orsay gumpaste shoe:

I had used a the same method as Pink Cake Box’s awesome gumpaste shoe video tutorial. But here are some extra tips on what I did:

• To make the template, I found a real shoe at home that had the same shape used it to make the template. I didn’t make it exact though, and was exaggerated to look curvier. Here are photos of the shoe templates I made (click for full size):

• I got lots of reference photos from online of different angles of the shoe. And I love shoes, so it wasn’t hard to browse! In this case, I found photos on Ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=sedaraby&_sacat=See-All-Categories. I used these photos to copy the little details of the shoe.

• To make the form that the shoe sits on, I hand-sculpted a form out of modeling clay and covered it in saran wrap. This way, I got a nice exaggerated curve.  I was really picky about the curve of the form… if you look closely, you can see how it gradually curves out at the bottom too. You can use anything for a form, but this is just what I had on hand. (Update Oct 17th/11: I’ve recently made a better shoe form out of foam core. See my new gumpaste shoe form here.)

• To make the stitching, the Wilton Gumpaste tool kit has a great little stitching tool.
• To shape the top of the shoe, I used a ball of saran wrap lightly pressed into the shape that I needed. Sort of like that shape of that wad of tissue you sometimes get in a pair of new shoes.
• To make the brooch, I used circle cutters to make a flat wheel shape out of grey coloured gumpaste. Then I bent the wheel shape a bit to make an oval. I brushed on some clear piping gel and stuck tiny silver beads onto it. It was hard to get the beads to look even, and I had to use tweezers in some spots.
• To get the silver colour, I airbrushed it using edible silver food colouring, but you can get the same effect by painting in thin layers using a mixture of edible silver lustre powder and alcohol.
• The heel is done using the method shown in the Pink Cake Box video gumpaste shoe tutorial. See the 4:45 mark for details.