Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1909 — SUGAR MADE FLOWERS. [ARTICLE]

SUGAR MADE FLOWERS.

Among the many odd trades confined exclusively to cities is that of making show pieces, more or less edible, for banquet tables. At many corporation dinners it is the custom to have a large table ornament which will, from its construction, suggest the business in which the diners are Interested. Many of these ornaments are constructed of sugar paste, and others of nougat, a candy paste besprinkled with nuts. There is nothing in the way of figures or flowers that cannot he reproduced in sugar by a clever worker. The best material for flowers is what the designers call “pulledf sugar. This is made by melting down the finest brand of loaf sugar, and mixing the mass, when it begins to harden, with a little clear syrup, after which it Is manipulated until It is partly cooled. The •worker then shapes his leaves and petals, fixing them together in a natural form as he works. Where the flowers have a body color vegetable colors are mixed In the boiling sugar; when the flower Is one that needs only a tinge of color this is put on with a brush. A material called composition paste, which is made of gum tragacanth, marble dust, and cornstarch, Is used for figure pieces. A finish so like that of highly polished porcelain can be given to this paste that the average observer is completely deceived. It might seem strange that any one should make a candy structure to use as the basis for an oil painting, but this was done on one occasion for the sake of novelty” and the picture was exhibited with others -at a large gathering of spectators. The frame was made of gum paste and afterwards gilded. The artist first lhade a landscape of sugar paste in relief, and the design was then painted in oils. There was enough of the supdr surface left in places to prove me real foundation of the picture. s The effect produced by the combination is said to have been fine, and to have shown that the resources open to the sugar worker in artistic effect are greater than any one would have supposed.