Can You Color Polymer Clay With Kool-Aid?

Sometime ago an annon on Tumblr asked about coloring polymer clay with kool- aid, here was my thoughts about it:


"Hi, I am wondering if I can make DIY polymer with color in the clay? I thought about kool-aid as a dye but I don't know if it has been tried already. I like the idea of making my own clay but color is a big issue with me and I don't always want to paint. - Tammie"

Hi Tammie, I once considered making my own oven bake clay but it was to much trial and error for me to continue it so I give 2 thumbs up on going on that route.

I also haven’t heard of Kool-Aid being used for coloring but there are a few things I see that is problematic with the idea of using Kool-Aid:

1. If your just putting the powder mix right in the clay then I’m assuming it works like mixing chalk pastels or makeup, you’ll keep adding more powder but you never get it to the exact color you want, sometimes you’ll even get unwanted clay chunks unless you intended it that way. (sometimes I do that because it adds a nice effect)


2. Now if you’re mixing the powder with water first then this is where it can be tricky. Because the sugar from the powder will make the clay and your hands sticky/uneasy of work with. Maybe if you add so cornstarch to it, it might reduce the stickiness of the sugar. Be careful with how you mix the Kool-Aid, if it’s too pasty you’ll have little Kool-Aid chunks in your clay or if add you to much liquid it might not might not mix well. 

• Keep in mind that because Kool-Aid has sugar init like I said before it makes things sticky also, it will attract bugs and flys. Unless of course you have it in a Ziploc back or air tight container 

I really think the best thing you could do if you want to color your clay inexpensively is use food coloring bought from your local grocery store.

I hope you don’t that I’m discouraging you from using Kool-Aid, I just think there might be better methods out there. By all means give it a try maybe it might work, heck maybe it might be even make your clay scented. Of flavored but who wants to eat clay mix.

Thanks for the question Tammie and let me know how it works out for you. <3