I am making gumpaste flowers & they seemed 2 have turned out pretty ok considering it was my 1st attempt. But I am having a hard time getting some info on how to color them.Wat kinda dust is good & wats the difference between petal dust, pearl dust & luster dust. any info /help with this regards will be much appreciated. Also I wud like to know will i get the pale dust without the shine in Michaels stores? If so wat brand do they sell ?
Also wat wire is this lady using in the video- where will i find this?
Thanks in advance.
If you want color with no sparkle, you can use non-toxic ground up chalk. Also, Wilton now sells color dust in many colors. They can be dusted on with a dry brush or painted on with lemon extract. You should be able to find that wire in a craft store like Michaels in the floral department.
I make a lot of Gumpaste flowers, and the best wire I have ever used is paper covered wire from Japan. I can find it locally in an independent cake supply store, or I buy it from Nicholas Lodge.
I sometimes start with either white or pale colored gumpaste. I use petal dust to color the flowers as I see fit. The petal dust can be purchased from almost any online cake supply company, and I can also get it at my local cake shop.
Luster dust is generally used to give a slight shine to finished flowers, as is pearl dust. Pearl dust is much more subtle than luster dust. Petal dust is really the only one that will give you actual color. Luster dust used on white gumpaste will look very very light. Once you are done dusting your flowers, you should steam them for a few seconds to set the color.
You can see my flowers on my website, which is in my signature.
Edited to add: If you ever have the chance to take a dusting class with Ruth Rickey it will open your eyes to the wonderful world of color!!!!
~Chelle
Sorry to jump in but is it better to colour flowers (roses in particular) after making them than colouring the white paste and making them the colour you want that way?
Wilton now makes a color dusts, that isn't pearlized, so they are matte colors.
Petal dusts (or like Wilton's color dusts) are matte colors with no shine or shimmer.
Pearl dusts (with the exception of Wilton's) are generally white and have a incandescent pearl look to them. They iridescence can have different colors that you pick up looking at it from different angles, which is why you have like red pearl or blue pearl dusts. Super pearl are usually all white.
Luster dusts are the shimmery colors that come in all of the different shades.
Wilton's pearl dusts are mostly what I would consider luster dusts in the cake world, with the exception of the white, which to me is pearl dusts.
Sorry to jump in but is it better to colour flowers (roses in particular) after making them than colouring the white paste and making them the colour you want that way?
It really depends on the look you want. I do both. I sometimes start with a pale pink gumpaste, for instance, and make my roses from that. Then once they are dry, I will take varying shades of pink, pale orange, darker pink and dust the roses with them. I have used up to 6 or 7 shades of colors on one rose before. I find it's helpful to look at pictures of real roses (or whatever flower I'm doing) and figure out what colors and shades are in it, and use those on my flowers. Real flowers are shaded/variegated/etc... they are not all the same uniform color, and I try to make my gumpaste flowers look realistic.
There is a difference between flowers for a cake and flowers for a competition. I mostly make gumpaste flowers for competitions, and the judges pay close attention to the dusting/coloring of the flowers. If I'm doing flowers for a cake, I don't generally put on 6 or 7 different colors, simply because most people don't care, or would be able to tell thedifference. If it's for someone special, I will though.
I hope that helps some!
~Chelle
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