Food Coloring question

[Petricore]

I have a customer dying(not intentional pun) to have a dyed pen. He wants curly maple dyed blue. I've read the threads on how to do it, and went to do it last night and failed miserably. I am assuming I know the problem, but just wanted to check with you guys and see if you agree. When I apply it, it coats kind of a green color and after it dries I can put more on and it doesnt get any darker. I accidentally got stabilized curly maple, and am assuming that that is why the color is funky and not absorbing. If this is correct I will go back and get regular curly maple and try again!
Thanks,
Linc

 

[splinter99]

Hello
Yes, you want reguular curly maple...the type of food coloring you use is important..the stuff that I use is from a commercial bakery..It is made by sugar kraft but contains no sugar..I put a link to the site on the tutorial that I posted a while back..If you have problens let me know..maybe I could send you some

 

[splinter99]

Hello
Yes, you want reguular curly maple...the type of food coloring you use is important..the stuff that I use is from a commercial bakery..It is made by sugar kraft but contains no sugar..I put a link to the site on the tutorial that I posted a while back..If you have problens let me know..maybe I could send you some

 

[Petricore]

I am not sure if the stuff I use has sugar or not, but its not getting sticky at all. It just seems to not be absorbing into it, which I'm thinking is the stabilizer in it. I'll have to check and see if I can find some locally. Id hate to buy it online and pay more for shipping than the bottle

 

[Monty]

Why don't you just buy blue stabilized curly maple? Arizona Silhouette has it.

 

[pmpartain]

Which Tutorial? I must have missed it.

 

[Petricore]

From what I've seen (and posted looking for pics) the blue stabilized curly maples and poplars are a dark blue that is kind of dull. I saw a pic of a homemade flag pen and it was very deep awesome blue that popped. My customer wanted the popping blue. I posted asking for pics of blue curly maple and got no responses, and digging through the SOYP section didnt yeild any that looked that great, and this is a repeat customer that usually orders 3-4 pens per time, so I want to make sure he gets exactly what he asks for

 

[Petricore]

Originally posted by pmpartain

Which Tutorial? I must have missed it.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23002&SearchTerms=food,coloring

 

[Petricore]

as a followup. I am in the process of doing this and the dye I found from my commercial bakery has corn syrup in it. I can definitely see why people recommend against it. It is STICKY, and never dries. Does the non sugar stuff actually dry ? I am having lots of problems applying my finish the other way. Looks like I need to get some without !

 

[mwenman]

Check out sugarcraft.com website. They have powdered food colorings and one of the ones available is Royal Blue which may be the color you are looking for. in 3 to 4 gram jars for 2.09 or an 18 gram jar for 4.69

 

[Petricore]

I've never used powdered before, just the paste, and I really like the paste, would you basically just add a little less water and make a paste from the powdered ones ?

 

[Petricore]

also does the bakers preferred not have sugar or corn syrup in it ? i cant find much info on it.

 

[ldb2000]

Hi
I use regular liquid food coloring and very dry curly maple and get very good results I also use teak oil after the food coloring to pop the grain and give some depth to the curl

The food coloring i use is "McCormic Food colors & Egg Dye" it comes in a box w/4 colors yellow,reg,green and blue 1/4 oz each they also sell neon colors and bigger bottles of it too and its available in your local supermarket.
I've used this stuff for coloring toys for years and have never had a problem getting nice vivid colors and good coverage just make sure that you give it a good top coat of something to protect it

 

[smoky10]

Why not use a blue permanent marker? Several people here has used them with good results.

 

[Petricore]

So far the results I've seen with food coloring have been alot nicer than with markers, at least for the color blue I'm looking for.

ldb2000- What do you use to finish the pens with ? Does the food coloring and teak oil dry completely before you finish ?