Cold Porcelain Recipe

How to Make Home Made Modeling Clay

There's something intriguing about the name - Cold Porcelain.  What on earth could it mean?

What's cold porcelain? I'm glad you asked. This stuff is so cool, and you can make it with just a few simple ingredients. Then you might create tiny faces for dolls to go into the miniature garden, incredibly detailed flowers and so much more with it.

The 'cold' part refers to it being air dry clay, not requiring baking or heat to set the shape. 

It's really easy to make, and nice to work with, but I may need to do more experimenting on finer details for faces, for example. The first few I tried didn't have the crisp finish that I was hoping for. The mixture tends to slump a bit and blur any fine detailing.

I use it to make eggs for my faux birds nests, and other things that don't need to be really intricate. 

Some people use it to make flowers and leaves, which I haven't tried yet. Other things are tiny miniature fairy babies.

Here's the recipe for cold porcelain, and supplies;

Ingredients;

• one and a half cups corn starch (not corn flour)
  
  
• one teaspoon hand or body lotion (I used really cheap stuff from Zellers)
  
  
• one tablespoon white vinegar
  
  
• one tablespoon baby oil or mineral oil
  
  
• one cup white glue

Mix with a rubber spatula in a stainless steel bowl - this will stick to plastic so use metal or glass only.

Once the ingredients are mixed together, pour it all out onto parchment paper, which has a bit of cornstarch on it.  

Rub cornstarch onto your hands, and knead the dough. 

It will be extremely sticky and loose at first, but don't panic! A few minutes of mixing and the addition of a tiny amount of cornstarch will help. You'll see that it soon starts to hold its shape.

If you're standing at your counter, wondering what went wrong, just be patient. This stuff is like bread dough and just needs more...kneading.

It should be soft and flexible when you're done.

Wrap in cling wrap and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. I'm not sure how long it will last refrigerated, as I used mine up really quickly.

To use it, take off a bit and re-wrap the original lump to stop it from drying out.  Whatever you make with it will need to air dry for several days. 

Keep in mind that it tends to slump, and it will also crack on the bottom.

When the pieces are completely dry, you can paint them with acrylic craft paint. 

I want to try making some flowers to use the fairy baby faces that I make out of other modeling clay.  The face will be the center of the flower, and they'll be magnets to hang on the fridge.

I might also try making little trees that would be suitable for use in miniature landscapes, like railways or tiny towns.

Don't forget you can paint your miniatures, or use other methods to color them. Eggs need speckles, and cheeks need roses to bring your creations to vivid life.

Find out more here on the Cold Porcelain Acrylic Painting page.