[완전 달콤한, 슈가 아트 기사] Come taste these sugary flowers

Pink roses made of sugar - what could possibly be sweeter than that?

Several young women gathered at "Sugar Rose," a sugar craft workshop in Juyeob-dong, Gyeonggi Province on a Thursday afternoon for their regular lesson.

After greasing their hands with shortening, they start to knead white sugar paste following the instructions of sugar craft artist Choi In-young.

"Continue pulling them apart and sticking them back together. It is important to make the dough nice and soft. After that, we will add the colors," Choi tells the students.

One by one her students finishes softening the dough and eagerly starts to add different colors. Colorful sugar pastes are then ready to be rolled on, cut and detailed into animals, clothes, flowers, humans and ... well, everything.

The world of sugar craft

So what exactly is sugar craft?

Basically, it is art made of sugar. They used only to grace the tops of cakes, but they have become an independent genre of art over the years.

As the history goes, the first wedding cakes using sugar decorations were made in England.

Experts recall 1840 as the first year of sugar craft, when the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was held. The cake used at the wedding was 2.7 meters in circumference, 36 cm thick and weighed 136 kilos. All sorts of gorgeous sugar crafts were put on top of the cake.

Now the art has spread throughout many countries in the world, including Korea.

Choi was originally a cake baker, but while making some sugar decorations for wedding cakes, she saw the potential in sugar craft and changed her career.

She learned from one of the first sugar craft artists in Korea for two years, and now has become skilled enough to open her own workshop. Recently, she held an exhibition in Insa-dong, Seoul, with two other artists.

"Many people who are interested in art examined the works closely. But some just walked off the exhibits really quickly, thinking that it was a flower exhibition," Choi said with a laugh.

Looking around Choi's cozy little workshop, the reactions of exhibition-goers were quite understandable. You might think Sugar Rose was decorated with fresh flowers, but you?Ψd be wrong!

Beautiful sunflowers, Christmas flowers and Lilies planted in flower pots all turned out to be Choi's works.

"Sculptures made with other materials, say, clay, are impossible to be sculpted this minutely. It is only possible with sugar paste," Choi said, showing the realistic stamens and pistils of her sunflower.

It took only two years for Choi to master sugar craft, but she was a veteran baker to start with. How long would it take for someone who does not know the first thing about baking?

"I made this on my first day," exclaimed one of the students, proudly presenting a tiny baby sleeping under a blanket with a pair of blue baby shoes next to it.

"It depends on how the student follows, but yes, students are able to make these on their first day. After about two or three months, they can design their own cakes with sugar craft, and after about six months they will be able to create more complicated flower sugar craft," Choi said.

"So not only people who want be a sugar craft artist but also many who simply want to enjoy it as a hobby come to learn."

The completed works would make good presents and also a good decoration for the house. Sugar contains natural preservatives so they are not so hard to preserve, Choi said.

"Just keep them in a dry place and pay a little attention during the rainy season. Also keep them out of direct rays of the sun because the colors might be ruined. If preserved well, they can be kept for years just like other kinds of art," she said.

Basic first steps

Here are some basic steps for making a jewelry box, one of the easiest things to make.

Step one: Rub some shortening on your hands.

The key is to use just the right amount of shortening. If one uses too small an amount, the dough will stick to the fingers. If one uses too much, on the other hand, the dough will become too greasy.

Step two: Knead the sugar paste until it is soft.

The sugar paste is a mixture of powder sugar, egg white, gelatin, carboxymethyl cellulose, starch syrup, shortening and water, kept for a day.

Step three: Drop colors on the dough using a toothpick.

Be careful, even a smudge of pigment ink is enough to dye the dough. One can control the lightness of the color by the amount of the ink.

Step four: Make the top, bottom and sides of the jewelry box with same colored dough. Using a mold helps for starters.

Step five: Make colorful flower and leaves decorations on top, and maybe add a ribbon on the side.

Step six: Let it dry in a cool place. It is better to stuff some tissues in and around it to maintain its shape.

For more information on "Sugar Rose," visit www.sugarose.co.kr.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young