The Creation of the "Life-size" Wedding Cake "Topper"
Written by Elizabeth Bonura   
Thursday, 10 January 2008

"Who Made the Life-size Wedding Cake" and "How Did They Do That?"

Elizabeth standing next to the sculpted head "cake topper" that was used on the life-size wedding cake!

Well, there were two of us that teamed up to create that "spectacular" "massive work of art" for Chidi.  Chidi brought a baker from Dallas and I together for this project in August of 2007.   After finding me online, Chidi called and said "I would like to order a traditional posed cake topper but I need them to be a little larger... and I only want the heads."  "Ugh, OK..." Then she told me about her idea of having large bride and groom cakes at her wedding (she was inspired by some cakes she saw at a Nigerian wedding as a child.  She decided on making them portraits because she had always dreamed of having a doll that looked like her).  I honestly did not hesitate to take this project on because I love the sculpt faces and I've always wanted to create something life-size! 

I created the head, shoulder and hair out of polymer clay(ProSculpt ) and I used glass eyes to add to the realism of the sculpture.  It took me two week sculpting full time (many night I was up past midnight working on Chidi's sculpture.)  I have to give my thanks to so many artists and friends online who helped critique the sculpture until I finally captured a likeness of Chidi.  You see, I have never met Chidi (I normally do not meet my clients) so I uploaded pictures for member of The Professional Doll Makers Art Guild , Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy and  the API Chapter for San Antonio/New Braunfels.  With their feed back I was finally able to create a sculpture that satisfied the bride :) Once I complete the sculpture of Chidi, I delivered it to the baker in Dallas, TX.  Her and her husband did the amazing job of putting the cake and sculpture together! 
 
There is no doubt that this was the BIGGEST challenge I have ever taken on(the whole time, Chidi kept telling me "I have faith in you, you can do this.  I believe in you!" - Thank you Chidi for challenging me and for believing in me!!)!  I grew so much as an artist and learned so many things throughout this process - and yes, I would do it again!  
 
It's been so exciting to see this cake being featured all over the Internet, tv reports, on CNN and Inside Edition and mentioned on the radio!
 
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or ideas you would like to discuss. 
 
Below are some thumbnails  of pictures I took while I was sculpting.  You can see how the sculpture went through many changes before it was completed.   If you click on it, the link will take you to my fickr site where you can view a slideshow of larger images.
 
sculpting the life size cake topper
Last Updated ( Friday, 11 January 2008 )