Food coloring-which to use?

Today I would like to talk more about food coloring. It’s a pretty interesting topic. After knowing how to model well delicate and realistic leaves and petals, it is essential to know how to dye and paint the rubber paste correctly.

There are several opinions concerning the use of different types of food colorants for flowers made from sugar paste (rubber paste). But I have a preference, which I have come after years trying different colors, different presentations, different brands. I always use powdered food coloring. Either to dye the gum paste to give it a base color, or to paint over (paint on the petals and leaves to give them natural appearance).

And why do I use only powder dyes? Why never use dyes in liquid or gel?

Simple: Rubber paste is an extremely sensitive material to changes in consistency and composition. When adding gel or liquid we add moisture. The added humidity, no matter how little, leads to changes in the behavior of our pasta to different factors: weather and climate. It becomes softer and sticky and it takes longer to dry. It can even get too late in drying. Or that it is directly impossible to work in a humid or excessively hot environment.

Coloring with petal dusts (edible dust colors)

We have established that it is preferable to use powder dyes to dye our pasta. The base color is applied in small quantities. Always get a very clearly base color. Keep in mind that it will darken as time goes on. That’s because the pigments tend to take a long time to activate. Like this. It is always easier to add some powdered dye if we need a darker base color than to add too much at first and have to lower it by adding neutral rubber paste.
How to use powder dyes

For the tinting we can use the powder dye in two ways: dry or mixed with isopropyl alcohol

They are used in dry to blend the petals and leaves. They are always used on a paper and the brush is slightly unloaded, so as not to drag too much color on the petal or leaf. We can use several colors on the same petal or leaf but very carefully. Always have a clean brush for each color. Do not use the same brush for all colors.

The Strokes we want to highlight (nerves, specks, streaks) are painted using powdered food coloring mixed with isopropyl alcohol. The mixture is always made in a half-pint or small container. That’s not to waste the dye. When it dries we can recycle the color, scraping the dry powder and putting it back in its container.

Powder Dye Brands I recommend according to my preference

Below I’m going to leave a small list of brands of food coloring powder that I usually use. I will order them according to the quality of the pigment and variety of the color range (my personal preference).

Fractal colors-can be purchased in Europe from Travelcake (German) Https://travelcake.de/39-fractal-colors-pulver

Fratello-can be found in Peru and South America in GENERAL http://fratello.com.pe/colorantes-para-reposteria/
EdAbleArt-can be found in UK and can be ordered online http://edableartworldofcolour.co.uk/product-category/powdered-colours/

RainbowDusts-can be found in different online stores worldwide. Https://www.rainbowdust.co.uk/product/powder_colour-rainbow_paint.html

Magic colors-can be found online at different stores in many places around the world https://www.sugarcrafter.com/

I hope that my post you like and is useful. If you have doubts, I will be more than happy to help you solve it.

A huge hug and happy New Year!

 

Cat