The art of coloring gum paste flowers

[Wendy DeBord]

Given the number of skilled cake decorators and designers we have participating here..........I'm hoping you all wouldn't mind sharing your techniques.

I'm personally interested in this topic and asking for your helpful knowledge. So far I've only made gum paste flowers that were one piece items cut out and pressed between double sided forms (I've yet to wire any of them). Although I have purchased assembled gum paste flowers (mainly roses) and colored them myself. Recently I'm made many purchases of materials & equipment so I can begin learning this art.

I have to mention that my time is very limited at work. That's the main reason why I buy in flowers and haven't taken the time to fully learn this art. So I'm sort of looking to put the cart before the horse and get some insider tips that can take my work up a notch with-out spending the years you all have in perfecting this. Please forgive me for wanting to jump ahead.

So far I've played with brushing flowers with dusts and gotten inconsistant results. Sometimes I'm using white gum paste sometimes I've colored it to get a base color. The dusts don't adhear evenly on the gumpaste, so it looks blotchy. I have then steamed them over a tea kettle to set the color.

Then I tried dipping the flowers in a colored alchol based bath. That worked great on flowers I purchased. Then I dipped flowers I cut out myself and the dipping technique turned out horribly. It didn't absord into the paste quite the same as the flowers I bought did. The end results have shine to them and don't look realistic.

Can I learn to color my flowers with-out spending a great deal of time on this?

How do I get my dusts to brush on leaving an even coat of color?

Why did the gum paste flowers I made not absorb the color dip the same way purchased ones do?

[JeanneCake]

I've been buying flowers from CalJava, in white mostly, and using an airbrush to color them. Dan tells me that I can airbrush these flowers, but I've never had the courage to use luster dust in my airbrush because I don't want to damage it (I just bought it and I'm still learning how to use it, I'm not very good at it). He has started selling dust for airbrushes but I haven't tried it, I think it is only available in specific pearlized colors. So I use the regular airbrush colors and mix my own colors for whatever hue I need. Before I had the airbrush, I did a purple tulip cake last summer; I painted white tulips with purple luster and petal dust and they came out spotty and not as nice as I wanted. I don't like how long it takes things to dry when I use vodka, I always use lemon extract to mix the dusts with when I'm painting flowers. I like to make "fantasy wildflowers" from the white hydrangeas by painting them with pastel luster dusts, and I especially love the agapanthus and stephanotis from Wholesale Sugar Flowers.

Anyway, one of my instructors was Ursula Argyopolous from Art of the Cake. She used to paint her flowers straight and then steam them - she had a huge collection of paste colors mostly from the UK and would mix them herself. She always made flowers white and painted them later; she would make a huge bunch of the hooked wires so they were ready when she wanted them (usually when she was on the phone!). Then on another day, she'd made the little cones for the inside of the roses or the middle of the calla lilies and roll them in yellow granulated gelatin. Another day, she'd do the first row of petals. She did things in stages. When you walked into her office, you'd see all these foam blocks with roses or other flower petals in various stages, or the pasta dryer with the calla lilies hanging on them. She would make leaves out of colored gum paste, though; and she had different colors for the different times of the year (paler green in the spring, darker in the summer). The class I took with her was 4 years ago so my memory is a little sketchy on the other flowers, some of them she did use colored gum paste for.

I'm hoping someone posts the how-to on the alcohol dip method!

[Wendy DeBord]

I've been using vodka lately because it doesn't leave as strong of a smell like using extracts does. Maybe I should go back to clear extracts? Do they absorb in more evenly?

[JeanneCake]

I don't know about whether it absorbs more easily, I did notice that it takes longer to dry (especially the non-edible gold ultra dust, that stuff drives me crazy when I use it for the edges of ribbons, etc.). Plus I always have lots of extract around, but not always the high-proof (86?) clear alcohol. I save that for when I need to remove color from something! Like a drop of color that lands right where it shouldn't on a fondant covered cake....

[joshalow]

What kind of dusts are you using? What types of brushes are you using ? These could be a factor. I have noticed a difference in some of the petal dusts that are out there. I use some of the British ones, but also like some of the ones from Creative Cutters and from Sunflower (NY/Miami Sweets- I think their name has changed again though). A flat brush works much better than round brushes as the round brushes usually aren't strong enough to brush on the dusts. Do you use more than one shade of dust when coloring the flower? When I took a class from Alan Dunn, he had us brushing on the dusts while the petals were still a bit wet. We worked on veining the petals, and then let them sit for a bit and then dusted them with two or three colors mixed together. The dusts go on much easier this way, but unfortunately, I usually revert back to my old habits, which I had developed before, and I dust my flowers after they are dry- just what I am comfortable doing. If you want a light colored flower, dip the brush in the petal dust, and remove the excess on a paper towel before starting to dust the flower. If they are dark flowers, I start off with a lighter shade of it in gumpaste (ie. pink instead of red for a red flower) because a heavy amount of food paste in the gumpaste will change the gumpaste. I use a large brush for ones that I am dusting completely in a darker color, and brush on excessively, and then shake off the excess dusts, and then steam them.

I have dipped flowers in a mixture of vodka and dusts, but find it takes several days for them to dry. I really don't like doing it. I will do it with the leaves, sometimes. I sometimes dip the leaves twice, giving it time to dry in between the dips. I now use Everclear/Grain Alcohol which evaporates much much quicker than Vodka.

I can't say why the purchased flowers paint better as I make mine, so I haven't had experience with the purchased flowers.

[bkeith]

A few thoughts from someone who's probably tried it all:

Dry dusting: Alan Dunn's technique of using multiple colors/shades of dust on a single petal really give striking results. It takes a good eye for color, though, as well as additional time. So a lot of folks doing gum paste stick to a single color dust.

When I first learned, I was taught to wait until the petals are completely dry before dusting, but I find I get much better results when dusting damp or semi-dry gum paste. The dust sticks better, the coloration is better, and I've got more control over what goes where. It's easier to knock a petal out of shape and/or break little frilly bits if the petal is half-dry, though, so I wind up needing to support the petal with my hand much better as I dust it. I'm usually about 3 petals into the process when I think "I should've worn a glove".

As for brushes, the rule I was taught and think works well is that round brushes are for surfaces, flat brushes are for edges. A flat brush is more likely to leave a hard line when used on the flat surface of a petal. Soft, natural hair brushes are pretty much all I'll use.

Dipping: To make a dipping solution, I'll usually use airbrush color diluted with grain alcohol. For a less shiny result, use dry color dissolved in grain alcohol (the more water in the solution, the shinier the dipped piece will be). Wendy -- I'm guessing you use shortening when you roll out your pieces? That'll block some of the dip and leave you with lighter color and/or blotchy spots. The commercial flowers you've dipped have been dry much longer, so any shortening they may have used in the rolling/forming process will have dried up and/or migrated from the surface so that it doesn't block the color. The commercially made flowers may well also be rolled/worked with just cornstarch, since those folks work pretty fast and don't need as much working time with the petals.

Airbrushing: Definitely the way to go in my book. If you've got good control of your brush, you can get really great effects really quickly. Takes some practice, but well worth the time spent. I do keep a number of small squeeze bottles for custom colors. Standard airbrush colors are often too strong/vibrant or not quite the right shade for my taste. So I keep little mixtures of my own (e.g. my base leaf color is leaf green + a little brown to mute it a bit). I also like to layer colors for better effect -- similar to Dunn's dusting with multiple colors.

For airbrushing with dusts, make a solution of your luster dust in grain alcohol. It won't want to stay dissolved, so you need to shake it every time you pick it up. I keep some in a little squeeze bottle, and every time I add some to the airbrush, I give the bottle a shake, squeeze in a few drops, and spray. I try to keep the brush moving too, but that's a bit iffy, so it's best to use just a little of the solution at at time. When you're done, make sure to clean the airbrush thoroughly to prevent build-up of residue.

HTH

[FWED]

Hi Wendy. This may be old news to you but I will add it to the thread. I don't do gumpaste so I can only speak as an observer. I have a close friend here in town that is very involved in cake decorating and recently took a five day class from NICHOLAS LODGE reportedly one of the top gumpaste experts in the world. I saw the work that my friend did and the work that Nick did. It was amazing. I couldn't believe how realistic the flowers especially the roses were. I was so impressed that I went to his web site to see what else he did. Then today I see your thread. I can highly recommend the www.nicholaslodge.com site. He has a number of books (reasonable priced I think) and also video's and DVDs showing his techniques. Hope this helps.

[chefpeon]

Gosh, for the longest time I thought I couldn't run lustre dust through an airbrush....I thought for sure it would clog, but a friend of mine told me it was ok. I was very excited as I ran some gold lustre mixed with vodka through the cheapo airbrush at work. It was great.....worked like a charm....no clogging. Yay!

So later, I'm trying to run some lustre through a superfancilicious airbrush of my own (higher quality than at work), and I can't get the dust to run through it to save my life. I was majorly bummed out. I'm not sure what's wrong. Anyone have an idea?

An interesting note.....here in the state of Washington (not DC), we can't get Everclear. Stupid

liquor laws! Every time I have friends going out of town and they ask if they can bring back

anything for me, I always tell them "Everclear". They sure look at me funny.

[Wendy DeBord]

Ah...........now I've just learned tons!!

I'm rolling out in cornstarch cutting simple shapes. I'm also using purchased gum paste..........should I be more particular about which brands I purchase?

When you airbrush on color are you doing it on the assembled flowers or non-assembled? I've yet to try this.

I use round brushes of good quality, red sable (my watercolor brushes). After reading what you all wrote I'm wondering if I'm loading too much powder in my brush (I'm always in a hurry, perhaps thats my downfall). I've used multiple and single colors on my flower petals but they turn out rather crude looking.

AND it's the water content in the alchol creating the shine, whew........finally an answer, so I'll seek out grain alchol instead.

I do own several books on this topic and just got the Alan Dunn one everyone reccomended on Roses. I'm just spread out so thin on so many topics at work and here right now...........that I'm not able to study anything in depth at the moment, and I need some fast result on flowers I plan to use for Easter. Thank-you for all your suggestions.....I'll be back after I get a chance to impliment some of these suggestions.

[bkeith]

An interesting note.....here in the state of Washington (not DC), we can't get Everclear. Stupid

liquor laws! Every time I have friends going out of town and they ask if they can bring back

anything for me, I always tell them "Everclear". They sure look at me funny.

←

Same here in Virginia. For a while, you couldn't get grain alcohol at all, but now it's available with a reduced proof. Gotta love those lawmakers. Luckily, I live near enough to Washington, DC and Maryland that I can run across the border to get what I need (don't tell the authorities -- I'm not sure it's legal to transport across state lines).

[bkeith]

Ah...........now I've just learned tons!!

I'm rolling out in cornstarch cutting simple shapes. I'm also using purchased gum paste..........should I be more particular about which brands I purchase?

When you airbrush on color are you doing it on the assembled flowers or non-assembled? I've yet to try this.

I use round brushes of good quality, red sable (my watercolor brushes). After reading what you all wrote I'm wondering if I'm loading too much powder in my brush (I'm always in a hurry, perhaps thats my downfall). I've used multiple and single colors on my flower petals but they turn out rather crude looking.

AND it's the water content in the alchol creating the shine, whew........finally an answer, so I'll seek out grain alchol instead.

I do own several books on this topic and just got the Alan Dunn one everyone reccomended on Roses. I'm just spread out so thin on so many topics at work and here right now...........that I'm not able to study anything in depth at the moment, and I need some fast result on flowers I plan to use for Easter. Thank-you for all your suggestions.....I'll be back after I get a chance to impliment some of these suggestions.

←

Well, there aren't that many brands available for purchase, so I'm not sure shopping around will yield tremendous differences (though there's one brand that seems never to dry - Bakels - I think that's weird). For dipping, I'd say either make the pieces well in advance so the surface can dry thoroughly enough to accept the dip, or make your own so you can control the fat content.

As far as assembled flowers vs. pieces, it depends on the effect I want and the construction of the flower. For something like a stargazer lily, I'll airbrush the blush onto the individual petals, airbrush the base of the petals with a pale green where it joins with the stem, use a paintbrush to get the dots of darker color on, airbrush with a light pearl dust, then assemble (don't want to pearlize the pistil or stamens). With a cattleya orchid, I'll airbrush the individual petals with any specific color effect, but wait until it's all assembled to do the pearlizing, since there's no part of it I don't want to hit. With a rose, you can't really airbrush the individual petals, so the method depends on the effect you're going for: you can make the rose with white paste, dip it and let it dry, then airbrush the petal tips (darker color down inside the rose with color variation at the edges). Color the paste and just airbrush the petal tips (generally lighter color down inside graduating to darker at the tips, with or without other color accents), Or make it white and try to airbrush the whole thing (darker at the tips fading to white down inside the rose -- not exactly naturalistic, but a nice effect).

Loading too much dust onto the brush is very common. I generally load the brush, then work the color through the bristles on a paper towel before brushing the petals. That'll break up any clumps of dust that give unexpected color blotches, as well as knock a good amount of excess color off the brush so you have more control. You can usually go back to the same little pool of color on the paper towel a time or two as you're working before going back to the dust jar for more color.

[mignardise]

wendy,

what i always do for dry dusting....... add some cornstarch to the color dust and mix it well with your art spatula tool. this gets rid of the blotchiness.

[Wendy DeBord]

Heck, I never thought about the possiblity that I might be picking up a little clump of dust and that's how I'm getting a blotch of color. Thanks for the pointer!

I guess I'm being cheap, not wanting to waste excess dust.... so I keep everything loaded on my brush. That's going to be hard to wipe off excess.......

[K8memphis]

I use my hair dryer to dry my dipped gum paste stuff. Works great - I do use the everclear. And you can dust & steam & use markers first and then dip & dry - great effects.

Wendy, I use a plate under my dusting so I can shake off and scoop up excess dusts. The first thing I do is use the opposite end of the brush to scootch a little dust out onto the lid of the dust jar - then I set that lid on the plate & dip my brush in that rather than in the whole jar. I have better control of the amount I'm using that way. Stuff lasts a long time that way for me. And I use small brushes for coloring gum paste pieces, like Keith said, flat for edges and round for coverage then a fluffier one to pearlize stuff.

You can get colored chalk, and scrape them with a razor & chop it up a bit to make more dust as you need it - this from Scott Clark Woolley. Plain chalk not oil chalk. Having a box of that on hand for possible backup is reassuring. Instead of sneezing one day & blowing a whole $3 jar of dust to smithereens you have back up. The chalk is non-toxic just like the dust.

Wendy, when I do stuff on wires, I put a 14 inch cake pan on a turntable & put a weight in it so it stays put - then I put my petal or whatever on a *moistened cloth wire and bend the other end of the wire so the piece will hang free over the edge of the cake pan - you can hang a lot of stuff around there. Gravity is your friend too. Then when they dry more you can take them and stick them into foam or whatever. Easy to count, easy to make a bunch in a small space. You can work faster.

Umm, *moistened is an important word - When you are going to attach the petal to the wire, you make a small hook in the end of the cloth covered wire and dip it into egg white to be the glue to hold onto the petal, wipe it off - wipe the excess egg white off so only the moistened wire remains - your pieces will never fall off the wire.

Random gum paste thoughts.

[joshalow]

Heck, I never thought about the possiblity that I might be picking up a little clump of dust and that's how I'm getting a blotch of color. Thanks for the pointer!

I guess I'm being cheap, not wanting to waste excess dust.... so I keep everything loaded on my brush. That's going to be hard to wipe off excess.......

←

I don't like wasting either, so I use wax paper under my flowers when dusting. This way I can tap my brush on the wax paper to remove the excess, and collect the dusts that fall from brushing the flowers, and then pour it back into the container - or a new container if I've mixed up some of the colors.

[joshalow]

A few thoughts from someone who's probably tried it all:

Dry dusting:  Alan Dunn's technique of using multiple colors/shades of dust on a single petal really give striking results.  It takes a good eye for color, though, as well as additional time.  So a lot of folks doing gum paste stick to a single color dust.

 

Airbrushing: Definitely the way to go in my book. 

←

Actually, Alan Dunn's technique of using various colors is not that difficult to do. He even suggests you can mix the two or three colors together, before dusting the flower- making it a one step procedure. There are times when you might want to have the different colors/shades noticeable, so mixing the colors beforehand wouldn't work then, but doing dusting on the different colors or shades leads to a more realistic looking flower.

If you are looking to save time, airbrushing is the way to go, but, personally, I find that the flowers don't look as realistic as the hand dusted/painted flowers do. I have used the airbrush for leaves, and filler flowers like hydrangeas, only because it's much easier to do larger quantities of leaves and flowers all at once instead of doing each one individually.