Sparkles & Color...the best part?

This morning I gathered up all of my food dye and edible luster dust to decorate my sculpted pieces, which will be my project for the next two days, since I have them off!!! Nothing but cake and cooking for two whole days! Can I get a "woohoo"?

So, for decorating, I use Wilton food dyes and luster dust. Unfortunately, that's all I can find around Burlington...there's really no shop for cake decorators around here. I really need to get some online shopping done, since I'm quickly running out of resources for my ever-expanding techniques: it's great to try to teach yourself, but you can hit a wall when you can't find what you need anywhere in this state. I still haven't gotten an airbrush kit...I'm hoping we'll play with them at school so I can see if it's something I really want. Not having one, I color everything by hand. It's not bad and I've heard many people say that airbrushing should be reserved for car paint and not cakes...

Now, not to talk Wilton down or anything (it's great for the betty crocker based home cook) but they're too simple...too directiony...made for people who spontaneously say "I want to make some rockin' cupcakes with minimal effort." Sorry, I really have no problem with that or with Wilton but I feel like it's too cutesy for taking cake making seriously. Not to mention, they're very limited with sparkly dusts and colors...and cutters, and other assorted tools.

There are these crystal colors that you can find online that are pretty expensive, but they are like superconcentrated powdered color that contains shimmer and a little sparkle and I really want them...maybe I will get them for my going away present to myself!

Shown in the picture are my tools: paintbrushes for administering sparkle and shine, cutters (in the form of letters, numbers, circles, leaves, butterfly, star), paste colors, gum paste mix (for sculpting pieces), shimmer powder, and sparkle-luster dust in every color I could find...it's easiest to knead color into the gumpaste or sugarpaste before it's molded and then go over it with shimmer powder...I like everything to shine and sparkle! The hardest part of the process is waiting for things to dry. Gumpaste can take a couple days...I hate waiting!!!

Anyway, I'm saving the sculpting and coloring fun for tomorrow and tuesday, because tonight after work I'm going to Asiana with Chris for sushi dinner and then the comedy club at higher ground...yay for sunday night plans!