Gumpaste Shoe How-To: Tips and Template

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

I used a the same method as Pink Cake Box’s awesome gumpaste shoe video tutorial.

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 exaggerated the shape to look curvier. Here are photos of the actual shoe templates made (click for full size):

• I got 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 small 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 particular about the curve of the form… if you look closely, you can see how it gradually curves out at the bottom. You can use anything for a form, but this is just what I had on hand. (Update Oct 17th/11: I’ve 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 stitching tool.
• To shape the top of the shoe, I used a ball of saran wrap lightly pressed into the shape that I needed. Similar to the shape of that wad of tissue you sometimes get in a pair of new shoes.
• For the the brooch, I used circle cutters to make a flat wheel shape out of grey coloured gumpaste. I bent the wheel shape a bit to make an oval, brushed on some clear piping gel and stuck small silver beads on. It was hard to get the beads to look even, and had to use tweezers in some spots.
• For the silver colour, I airbrushed it using edible silver food colouring. 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.