I ve read that u can use chalk to color flowers but i have tried and my flowers dont color as well as with petal dust. so i was thinking what if i try to make some petal dust with colored royal icing by leting it dry and than scrub it with a blade to make it powder, do you all think that it would work better than chalk. I am barely starting to learn how to make gumpaste flowers and i dont want to waste tons of money in petal dusts that are just going to be used for practice, some of my flowers look really beautiful but i want to make them look more real with diferent shades and colors. Thank you.

That sounds like a great idea! You could also try using artists chalk, I've read that it gives deeper colors than regular chalk. Please try the royal icing method and let me know if it works for you!

Don't know what types of chalk you were using, but I find that the chalk pastels work beautifully when ground up and used to dust flowers.

I bought a box of 48 chalk pastels at Michael's for very little $$. I grind them thru a small tea strainer ($1) into a small portion cup. I lighten them by adding in some corn starch and I can mix them to make custom colors.

Experimenting can't hurt, but I don't know how fine a powder you can get with dry royal. Also, the final product would be vulnerable to humidity (you usually steam gum paste flowers) and contact with grease (icing).

Rae

First of all you must put some shortening in you gum paste, so, the chalk powder can stick on the paste. You can use non toxic artistic pastels as well and mix some corn starch to brighten the color. I find out that potato flour gives more shine, sparkling look.

I've read in a Wilton forum: RI dots are dried, then ground up in a marble pedestal. Never tried this, but sounds interesting. I have to try the chalk pastels from a craft store. I've tried the kid's chalk doesn't give the intense color I need.
Hamsquad

i AGREE with blakescakes. scott woolley does this when he is teaching. i also do this.hth

I bought a box of artists chalk from Hobby Lobby. It was $5 for 48 colors. There's a lot of variety there, from really deep, bold colors to soft pastels.

I've tried mixing powdered sugar and gel colors to make colored dusts and it doesn't work on gumpaste flowers, just doesn't make a smooth color to blend in.

One thing that does work is to make chunky edible glitter from gum arabic, gel colors and a little bit of luster dust. Paint it on waxed paper and let it dry, then fold the waxed paper in half and rub it together so that the dried mixture comes off the waxed paper in flakes.

chalk pastels

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Rae

Wow. I didn't know you could use chalks as petal dust or that it was safe to use around food.

I didn't know all this!!!! kewlll

I have some left over royal icing. I might have to try this............

This is all really cool... Thanks for posting.

interesting .. thank you all for the tips

I think maybe you were using regular chalk and not chalk pastels - more intense color

I learn something new everyday, thanks!

I use non toxic pastel chalks and grin in a pestle and morter, You get a great variety of colours much cheaper than buying all the different petal dusts. Mix in some corn starch to lighten the darker colours. But I do always steam to seal in the colours too.

Is someone willing to post a picture of a flower dusted with the chalk pastel? I need to go buy some, but for today I am stuck at home! If I saw a picture that would tide me over until I get to the store!

Here are two roses I made for practice so they're not that great but I dusted the pink one with chalk from Michaels and then steamed it. The rose was white to begin with.

Thanks for posting the picture cherrycakes! What a remarkable color change! I'm going out to get some tomorrow to try it! I have some "blank" flowers to try it on!

WOW...I had no idea! thanks for sharing!!!!

Awsome! Thanks!!

the chalk is awesome..so many more color choices!!

you steam your flowers or leaves,etc. to set the color after dusting. puts a little shine to them also.

I don't use a steamer, just a pan of boiling water.

There's a difference between non-toxic and edible. I use chalk on things that aren't going to be eaten. To me, a gumpaste flower is not edible, especially not once it has a wire inside, so I use chalk on that. I also use markers on gumpaste, the non-toxic crayola markers. I don't use chalk on anything that will be eaten and if I use the markers on something that may be eaten, I warn them to remove it from the cake first.

Here's what the markers look like on gumpaste (the details on the baby and blanket):

The flower petals were dusted with wilton's pearl dusts.

In this picture, the peach rose and the red rose were dusted with chalk:

The pink rose was dusted with wilton's pink dust.

These roses were dusted in the centers only with ivory chalk for a really subtle effect:


You can paint gumpaste too, when you need deep colors:

Thanks everyone....great info. Those petal dusts can get expensive if you use much of it! Can't wait to hear how the RI dust comes out!