Text Question

So, here's the deal. I've been making icons with GIMP for a long time now... and I've learned a lot. But I've never been able to find out how to warp text. I'd like to be able to play more with the way text looks, and I think playing with some warping might help.

The things I'd really like to do would be making the text circular, making the text go in a U shape... that sort of thing.