Nu-Silver Or Silver ?

Decorating By brightbrats Updated 26 Jun 2007 , 12:07am by lynda-bob

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brightbrats Posted 25 Jun 2007 , 5:56pm
post #1 of 5

A freind of mine contacted me today. She is also a cake decorator. She is doing a wedding cake with small shiny silver balls on it.

The question is which would be better, nu-silver or just regular silver ? She is doing the balls out of mmf. Is that o.k. or would something else work better ?

Also how would she go about painting all of these balls ? Will she have to do them individually, or can she put them in a zip bag with the color and will it coat all of them ? She doesn't have a airgun, so that is out of the question.

If you have any ideas on the colors or the process on how to color them, please let me know, so I can get in touch with her asap.

Thanks a million.

4 replies
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ShirleyW Posted 25 Jun 2007 , 6:07pm
post #2 of 5

The best mixture for a true shiny silver is mix 2 parts Nu Silver with 1 part Super Pearl, then add enough alcohol (everclear or Vodka) to thin to a painting texture. I try for something like unnwhipped cream or latex wall paint. Too thick and it gets globby, too thin and it streaks and doesn't cover well.

You can coat gumpaste or fondant balls after they have dried by adding the dry dust to a zip lock bag and dropping the balls in and shaking. But that only gives you a light shimmer of color. If you want a solid silver shine to the entire ball they would have to be painted by hand or airbrushed. I have put them on the end of a toothpick and dipped them into a bowl of dust thnned with alcohol. But it takes just about as much time as it would to paint them by hand.

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leah_s Posted 25 Jun 2007 , 8:53pm
post #3 of 5

Good color advice above, but actually I have taken the balls while still soft and just rolled them around in the dry powder in a small container. The color is even and no brush strokes.

Otherwise I just buy nonpareils.

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miriel Posted 25 Jun 2007 , 11:21pm
post #4 of 5

I would do this with the wet method suggested by Shirley and set the balls to dry.

If done with dry luster dust, the dust can come off when you touch it. Steaming the dry dusted items will set the dust but this is difficult to do, especially on small balls.

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lynda-bob Posted 26 Jun 2007 , 12:07am
post #5 of 5

On a Food Network cake challenge, I saw Marina Sousa take fondant (pearl-size) balls and put them into a container w/ the dust and alcohol and swirl them around until evenly coated. She then let them dry (fast w/ the alcohol). HTH

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