Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Top Secret Cake Stand Finished and on Etsy!

When I started this back in November, I knew it was going to be something special.  It is absolutely the "prettiest" cake stand to date.  I guess the biggest challenge was the corners.  I wanted them to look like the pattern blended, and wrapped around, not just stop and butt up against a different pattern on the next side.  There was a lot of carving, adding material, carving some more, and sanding.  I really worked hard on the corners, and while not perfect (for me), they do have a flow which is what I was after.  I don't know if anyone else would have noticed or cared, but I did.  Because so much extra time was required, I have had to put a high price on it.

I really hate to price this so high, but as you cake decorators know already, our time is what we never seem to charge for correctly.  I kept a stopwatch close by to keep track of the time I spent actually working on it and was WAY off of my "guesstimate".  It's probably because of my advanced years, but I've come to the realization that my time is worth something.  Forget about all the tools, machines, and various supplies I have taken a lifetime to accumulate, these things I would have anyway because of my hobby.  Time is what I never seem to have enough of.

  Quote taken from my Etsy ad.

"I finally got it done!  I teased this stand on my blog back in November when I first started to work on it and I knew it was going to turn out just beautiful.  It turned out so much better than I expected.  It created a few unique challenges that I had to overcome during it's construction, but my patience paid off in the end.  It is far and away my most labor intensive stand to date, and now that I have all the bugs worked out, I can offer them for sale.

This stand is 17 1/4 inches square on the top, 23 inches square at the base, and will raise your cake 3 1/2 inches off the table.  The roses, buds, vines, and leaves, are very heavily embossed in a continuous vining pattern all the way around the base, and their detail is wonderful.  The glossy white paint really makes them "pop".

Due to the amount of labor involved, these stands are my most expensive to date, and do require at least 3 weeks lead time.  For this price I can build yours up to 18 inches on top.  For larger sized cakes up to 24 inches, an additional $50 will be charged.  Also, please note that your stand will have sharp corners at the base, not rounded like the pictures.  This one is for display purposes and it gets abused.  When I ship them they are packed to protect the corners."