How to Use Floral Tape in Sugar Flower Construction

Floral tape is a must-have for any florist who’s creating floral arrangements. But did you know that it’s just as important for those who create sugar flowers?

In this free video tip, sugar paste expert, Nicholas Lodge, shows you that when it comes to making sugar flowers, floral tape is perfect for wrapping, covering wire, and creating buds. Nicholas instructs the online cake class Classic Sugar Flowers right here on Bluprint, and in it he guides you through the creation of anemones, tulips, and peonies all with gum paste. But get a jump start on learning to use floral tape for your sugar flower arrangements like a pro, by watching this video.

Hi, I’m Nicholas Lodge, an instructor on Bluprint. I’m going to be showing you a tip today on how to use floral tape.

Floral tape comes in a wide width, which very often for sugar-flower making is too wide. So we cut it in half, or in quarters using a little cutter. This will actually cut this through. You can also use a pair of scissors, but this makes life a lot easier. And then when we have got a floral tape, this will give us half width floral tape.

Half width floral tape can be used for wrapping flowers. A lot of times when I make sugar flowers, I use a floral tape bud method, where I would take the floral tape, and I need to stretch the tape to make it a little sticky by opening up pores of the tape. And then we’ll wrap around the end of the wire. And then I’m going to go around, depending on the size of the flower, ten times. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And then I will take a pair of pliers, and I will them mold this around. So I’m actually forming a little small hook on the end, and I will then go around an additional ten times. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. And when we are using floral tape, we’re going to use this like you would in knitting. You need tension on your floral tape. So then this goes on nice and tight. And this is how you would make a floral tape bud.

So then when we are covering wires, which we often do. Sometimes we use silver wire and cover it green or white. Or sometimes when we do certain flowers like hydrangeas or lily of the valley, I actually cover the wire over with quarter-width tape. So with the quarter-width tape, we’re going to wrap this around the ends of the wire. And the technique we’re going to use here is going to be very much the same, keeping tension on the tape. You’re actually pulling the tape down, and I’m stretching this with my other hand. So you’re going to see how the tape is coming down, and you’re going to just cover over the wire. And as you come down, this gets tension on the wire. And this is how you would actually cover a wire with floral tape. And you just continue down to the bottom.

This could be cut into, like if I was making lily of the valley, six sections. Then I could use it for lily of the valley flowers.

So if you liked this tip, check out my sugar flowers class on Bluprint.com. I’m Nicholas Lodge.

And be sure to join Nicholas on the Bluprint blog on Friday to learn how to fix sugar flower mistakes with ease.