Need some help with this, crafty ppl

[Rachelslittlethings]

I have an order to replicate this cake into a Christmas ornament. The cake part is easy but I'm struggling on the clay vase. cause not only to do I have to make the vase, make all the flowers, but I have to stick an eyepin through the top of it to make the ornament.

I tried make a cone shape with silver clay with intentions of painting it shiny silver after  drying, then added the flowers but they just wouldn't hang right. I also have Pluffy. Is that better for flower making and what could I use for the vase is the clay still doesn't work.





Any innovative ideas welcome

[CDEeeek]

Might be pricy, but what about precious metal clay for the base?

[anefariousimp]

Why don't you try using a tiny cone shaped bead to act as the vase?

[Rachelslittlethings]

Oh good idea! I'm gonna check the store tomorrow

[Diane B.]

If you can't find a cone "bead," you might be able to find a bead finding that would be a similar shape and small size...perhaps bolo tie end "tips" like these:
https://www.google.com/images?q=metal+findings+bolo+tips+caps

You could add a flat or flatish bicone bead at the end (and bury any other parts or even the bottom part of the bicone bead in the cake to act as the vase "base," or perhaps find a "bell flower cone" bead/finding:
https://www.google.com/images?q=metal+bicone+bead+finding
http://www.etsy.com/listing/101176692/6-silver-tierracast-bell-flower-cones
Or you could add a polymer clay bit as the "base," or somehow flare out the bottom part of the tip in another way?


As for making the flowers and hanging right, are you saying each flower doesn't "hang" right, or that the entire cake/vase/flower dangle won't hang vertically?
If it's the flowers, are you putting each on the end of a thin and semi-rigid wire so they'll stay just where you want in the arrangement?... like this:
http://s96.photobucket.com/albums/l163/DianeBB/minatures_more (click on the arrangement on left)

If it's the whole thing, you could perhaps make the cake with a weight inside so that the whole thing would hang vertically. 
That would happen even better if you use a really long head pin to go down between the flowers, through the vase, and through the cake (then create a loop in the top of the wire for your dangle loop), or just use a length of wire instead or the head pin.

You could use Pluffy for the flowers but that line doesn't take very much detail so the flowers would have to be non-delicate or non-well-defined ones.  Regular polymer clay flowers atop good wires shouldn't add much weight since they're so small, I'd think. 
Or since the flowers in your pic are kind of tight together almost like a nosegay, you could use a blob of clay in the center for the wires to go into or even have some of the flowers directly on the blob or have some of the flowers touching each other for more stabilization of positions.

[13anana]

For the cone shape, I was thinking you could use a piece of silver can or something. The problem would be covering the seam though.
And as someone else suggested you probably should make something that digs through the cone and into the cake itself. That way you make sure it all holds together.

[Rachelslittlethings]

I found this today at my local bead shop. It's pretty small but the shape isn't exact but close enough. Plus the bottom needs to be thicker I think to support it as an ornament. Thanks for that idea

[Rachelslittlethings]

Another thing. I need to create this white vase with the ridges. I was looking at some ebay ceramic items but they were glazed and I was worried I couldn't bake them once I added the flowers. It also needs to be an ornament with an eyepin stuck through it.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2jeqxl3.jpg

[Diane B.]

No problem baking almost anything with polymer clay, especially because of the low temps necessary to cure it. 

The only materials that wouldn't be advisable would be the kinds of plastic that soften, shrink or melt at 275 F or above, and even some of those will work if they're well protected so the temp goes no higher at any point.

Materials that could contain any moisture (and haven't been sealed or dried sufficiently) would also be a problem but those would just cause steam and swelling under the clay and perhaps plaques that would show, as opposed to being a problem in themselves (e.g., bare wood, twigs, etc, if not painted or coated with clear sealer).

(So ceramic not a problem at all.)