The Macaroni Kid publishers have a wonderful on-line forum on which people share tons of creative ideas. I don't know who the first person to suggest macaroni jewelry was, but people took the idea and ran with it. I've seen several different "recipes" for making dyed noodles, but here is what I did:
Materials:
-white vinegar
-macaroni noodles (if you will be making jewelry, the larger sized noodles are better to fit over yarn or pipe cleaners. I used both large macaroni and large penne noodles).
-gallon-sized baggies
-food coloring (I used Kroger brand Neon Colors, but any food coloring will work)
-cookie sheets lined with wax paper
How-to:
1. Pour pasta into a gallon sized baggie (I dyed one 16 oz package of pasta at a time).
2. Pour in ~2-3 tablespoons vinegar and shake pasta around to fully coat (I didn't measure this, just tried to put in enough to wet all of the pasta).
3. Put in several drops of food coloring, depending on how dark you want your color.
4. Seal the baggie and shake and squish the pasta, vinegar and food coloring around until all the macaroni pieces are colored.
5. Spread out on wax-paper lined cookie sheets and let dry (around 20-30 minutes). You may need to separate pieces that are stuck together. It's easiest to do this when the noodles have dried a bit, but not completely.
Use colored noodles for bracelets, necklaces, collages, ornaments...and post pictures of your cool creations on our East Tucson Macaroni Kid facebook page!
