OK - I have never bought the already done gumpaste flowers, but I was given some recently (thank you Ann!) and I was wondering which is the best way to color them? I have both the airbrush (with a ton of colors - plain and shimmer) and I have a ton of lustre dusts - before I dive in and ruin them, I would appreciate advice on which techniques work the best?
TIA!

An airbrush might be difficult if there are a lot of overlapping petals, like roses. If the spray is blocked by the edge of one petal, it'll leave a blank silhouette on the petal beneath it. Not sure if I'm explaining that well.

If it's an open flower, like an orchid, you might get nice results with an airbrush. Personally, I prefer the look of dusts. It seems to give a more natural finish. To me, airbrush always looks like airbrush.

You can use BOTH...you can do a base color with the airbrush and do the highlights with the dusts. I do this when I don't pre-color the fondant/gumpaste before making the flowers. Just don't use a heavy handed spray....light coverage will help in the shading effect that a natural flower has. Also, it is easier to airbrush the flower parts before putting the flower together...that way you can more effectively control color blending and shading.

Thanks ladies - I have made flowers with already colored gumpaste, and then used the dusts on them, I have never started with a "blank canvas" so to speak! There are several different boxes of flowers, and several different "sprays" too - I am sure I will have to dust the sprays, I cannot imagine an airbrush working well on those! I may have to just take a few and play with them to see - I just hate wrecking perfect already done flowers! Some of them are in pieces (orchids??) and then the roses are already one piece.

And sometimes I like to use pulverized chalk. Works really well for certain colors. And a brush with a real slanted tip to get into nooks and crannies.

Never thought of chalk - thanks for the heads up!

Oh yeah...some of the colors are so delicate, and ground up real fine, it's a very subtle way to add color....works well!

I work at Michaels - next time I am there I will tear up the chalk isle! I have plenty of the empty luster dust pots - I am sure those will work fine for the chalk - is there any special techniques you do to grind it? (mortar and pestle??)