Adding Color to Sugar Flowers

Wow.. the petal dust really does make the flower go from just so so looking to amazingly realistic. This is my absolutely favorite part of making the sugar flowers 

Good exmaple of blending colors so they look natural

Good example of adding color

To me it seems like painting but with dry powder to get all the colors and the shades to blend just right. And whenever I do a demo or display my sugar flowers there is usually a painter just by chance looking at my work. I usually ask them what they think of the colors. They always have something nice to say which makes me feel awesome. I just learned by doing and trying this and that by looking at photos or real flowers.

I begin most flowers in white paste only because I like the ability to make the colors as deep or as pale as I want them. If I want petals to have two colors in a few different shades I like to apply the colors to the sections I want on a plain white slate.

I have never seen other sugar flower people add color and not sure everyone uses dusting colors. Some use airbrushes. I am asked a lot if I would like to airbrush. No!! is my answer. One thing I don't know how and learning to use one will take some time. The other thing is I love to add petal dust with brushes. It is quite fun.

Here you can see a yellow flower with Orange tips and deeper yellow center

Very subtle color added at the tips and center of flower

So, These are the basic steps I do to add the petal dust. Let's say I am using yellow and pink..

• I first dig through all my yellow and pink colors and choose the shades I might like. Yes, I have a lot of shades and I am always getting more. 
• I get out my plastic plate (it cleans up nicely) and my small pallet tray. 
• I look at the photo of the colors I am going for.  
• I begin with the lightest of the shade of color that covers the most area first.
• Then I add the next color in the lightest shade. Now the whole petals should be covered
• Now I go back and add the highlights of the deeper shades of the colors and tinge the edges
• Always blend the colors with the brush so they just don't stop a a certain point like a line.

That is it in a nutshell but that is just a very short explanation. I mix colors, overlap colors, I sometimes add whites and lighter shades of the color if the color turns out too dark. It just takes practice and practice to learn how apply the petal dust.

One hint is to try on a bad petal or make extras to try it out on..