Sugar Sculptures

I suppose a lot of people wouldn't consider a pâtissier an artist. It seems much more common to link them with Chefs, who really in their own right are artists as well (presentation is key!). My Guardian happens to be a pâtissier, so since I was little I've heard stories of all the pieces she has created. She's done it all from pastries, cakes and sugar art. She was even part of the team that created the wedding cake for Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Pretty amazing! When I was little, we used to sit and watch sugar sculpture competitions and man are those things intense! Not only is sugar art casting a very intricate process, it's also extremely delicate and dangerous! The craziest part was that, not only did they have to create these amazing sculptures, but also have to carry them across the floor to the judges table. I still remember the feeling when one of those beautiful pieces of art, that took so long to create, would completely fall apart during the move. That's part of the competition though. It has to be structurally sound, as well as beautiful and innovative. I wish I could find pictures of the pieces Rosemarie created, but so many of them were lost in our move from England. 


The amazing thing about sugar sculptures is that you probably wouldn't know it was sugar unless you were told. Well done, it looks just like blown glass. There are so many methods too. Casting, blowing, pulling. Blowing, is obviously very similar to glass blowing, whereas in pulling, the artists mold the pieces by hand once they're cooled. It's so dangerous, of course, because you're heating this sugar to up to 300 degrees. Rosemarie has the scars to prove it! 


I'm so fascinated by this art, because it seems so amazing how much detail can be captured using sugar! 



You can see on the top orb, the column coming down, and the fish- the varying colors and shading. A lot of food art incorporates using painting and drawing techniques (especially airbrushing). I love how much the colors pop with the sugars shine and the changing  levels from clear to opaque. Like regular sculpting, sugar sculptures seem to incorporate a lot of techniques to manipulate the sugar into shapes and tones. 


This guy used spiraled wire as a based shape to blow the sugar through to get the orange corkscrews. 


Such beautiful sculptures that only last from days to months!