Cold Porcelain Recipe
There are many cold porcelain recipes available, this is the one I prefer because it gives good result and is non-toxic. Please supervise children while making or using this clay, non-toxic doesn’t mean edible.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pva glue (white glue like elmer’s glue all)
- 1 cup cornstarch
- tablespoon mineral oil (babyoil)
- tablespoon lemon juice, witchhazel, or clove oil (these are natural preservative that help prevent mold, optional but reccomended)
Directions:
- Combine ingredients in pot. Don’t use your good cookware for this because it can be hard to clean off.
- Cook on low heat stiring constantly for 10 minutes or until doughs forms and begins to come away from the sides.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool until you can handle it.
- Knead to a smooth clay consistency.
- Store wrapped in plastic and refridgerated.
- Color is translucent cream but can be tinted with acrylic or oil paint. White paint gives a true porcelain look. If you are using this clay with children make sure the paints are also non-toxic, some paint pigments contain toxic chemicals so check the label.
Model as you would any other clay, metal and smooth plastic work best for me as does keeping my fingers lubricated with a little mineral oil. Keep any clay you are not using either wrapped in plastic or covered by a damp cloth to keep it from drying out while waiting to be used. If the clay it too sticky dust with a little more cornstarch and if it is a bit crumbly add a few more drops of mineral oil. Dries in about 24 hours, expect 20-30% shrinkage.
For more about Cold Porcelain check out this Squidoo lens I put together: Creating with Cold Porcelain
hai… how are you. have u ever known clay from thailand? when it dried, its not hard. it is flexible even u an bend it. lets say if we want to make miniature leek or spring onions… u can bend the leaves without cracking it. i’m looking for the recipe for the clay which flexible when it dried…. can you help me??
thank a lot
This recipe is fairly flexible and is used a lot for miniature flowers and leaves but I’m not sure if it’s the the one you are looking for.
I am begining to work eith the cold porcelain. I want to know if I can use lemon extract I found at the groceries that has alchohol and water?
The lemon juice in the recipe is a preservative to prevent mold. You could also use white vinegar instead as it’s about the same acidity as lemon juice (it just won’t smell as nice). Alcohol is a preservative so it would protect the wet clay but it evaporates away so once your cold porcelain dried it might mold in high humidity if not coated with a sealer.
I think Ariana is talking about Luna clay from Japan. It’s used for making delicate flowers and such. I don’t think it’s here in the United States yet. I met a woman who uses it at an art fair. Her website is: http://suphattra.com/
It’s Terra clay or pimmy clay, I have tried it, and it dries hard but not so hard, more like rubber but not as flexible as rubber :)
Oh, yes, I wonder, why should it all be cooked?
I’ve tried on making some my own homemade clay without cooked and it turns out pretty nice.
Do you know why it should be cooked?
Thanks
cheers,
Mari
It needs to be cooked because of the cornstarch, it thickens and combines more thoroughly with the other ingredients when it’s brought to a boil. If it’s not heated thoroughly the clay will not get to a nice smooth consistency.
Hello,
I was wondering, can the mineral oil be replaced with a different kind of oil? Maybe something like olive, canola, walnut, or vegetable oil?
Thanks,
Saki
Mineral oil is inert, it doesn’t go rancid like an oil like olive or canola will which is why it’s used. You could try other oils but I’m worried the clay would go bad even after drying if you used a plant based oil.
Hi,
Thanks for your recipe, I”ve been having problems with the paste,it cracks, do you know how to prevent it? And also want to what can I use to glaze it. Thanks
Caty
If it’s cracking either you have cold porcelain that’s too dry or you’re trying to sculpt it too thick. You can use acrylic gloss to glaze it or a polyurethane spray finish like Krylon crystal clear.
Thanks Sheryl for the answer :)
I’ll made my clay cooked for the best result :)
I’ve made it but sometimes the clay going too hard and like rubber, hard to handle, I think I cook them way too long lol
Mariana
Hi!
I just want to know what I should do to cure a “dry” clay, the one that cracks when dries. Should I add more oil?
Nica
A little more oil will work or a small amount of water if you are using a particularly thick glue.
Hellos! This is a very informative page, thanks a lot! I was wondering if you thought cold porcelain would be a good medium for Christmas ornaments? I’ve seen a lot of flowers done with this material and I’d love to see it used for Christmas angels. Thoughts?
Thanks a bunch!
Jamie :)
Cold porcelain is best when used very thin, 1/4 inch or less, like for the angel’s wings or to create fabric draping. For the bodies you would be better off using polymer clay.
Thanks! So the method there would be to bake the polymer clay and then add whatever pieces I was going to add with the cold porcelain and just allow it to air dry? Would I need to affix it with anything or will they hold together on their own?
Thanks again!
Jamie :)
Yeah, bake the polymer clay, rough up the area you want to attach the clay to with some sandpaper, apply a thin layer of pva glue, allow itto dry until it’s just a little tacky and then add the cold porcelain. You’ll be able to paint it after it dries. Make sure you seal the ornament with a sealer that works on both polymer clay and cold porcelain, liquid polyurethane, clear acrylic sealers, and non-lacquer sprays like Krylon crystal clear all work fine on both.
Hi :) I know you posted this a long time ago but I’m hoping you’ll still reply to comments/questions.
I was wondering if there was a way to get the cold porcelain to have a liquid-like look/consistency, for example to make realistic icing for miniature cakes/cupcakes/donuts/etc. I wanted something that could replace the use translucent liquid sculpey (you know how you can use TLS with a bit of polymer clay to get a goo-ey consistency?)
I was thinking if I use less constarch or cook the mixture for less time I could get that consistency. What do you think? Will it still be able to dry with less constarch, or will it fall apart?
I would just use a thick white glue for this, mix in a little acrylic paint to tint it or make it translucent.
Just the thick white glue by itself? Nothing else added? How durable would this be, I would still glaze it but would it last long?
It will be pretty strong as long as you use a decent quality white glue or if you want more waterproof Mod Podge is good and thick when mixed with a little paint.
Oh, alright then. Thank you :)
I wanted to leave a comment to say thank you for all of your specific answers here in the comments. It’s all answered a lot of very specific questions I’ve been looking for about cold porcelain and all in one spot. It’s been a real help.
Thanks so much. n..n
Hello Mam,
I m a new member to this site. I live in India.Thankyou so much for providing such an elaborate procedure.
I m not familiar with pva glue,may i use fevicol instead of pva.
I read on some other sites that this glue is available in white and yellow color,which one is suggested.
Thanks in advance…
Hello Mam,
some more doubts…..
1 cup means 1ooml or 250ml
some sites are suggesting to add glycerine,why?
some are suggesting to add water, but adding water results in shrinkage,in your recipe there is no water,even then u expected shrinkage why?
My sincere apology for so many doubts……
and tons of thanks in advance for clarifying them,THANK U
Hi! I love your tutorial! I have even made a batch of clay. I just have one problem… How can I prevent cracks? Please answer as soon as possible. Thank you in advance. =)
Hola!!
Mi pregunta es la siguiente, cuando los munecos que realizo se secan quedan con un olor fuerte a pegamento, hay alguna manera que el olor no sea tan fuerte?
Hi…very nice recipe.
I have a question…
How can I get a smooth result once the figurine is done? I get lumpy results :(, not smooth like the images I have seen .
Thank you
i used this clay making flowers smooth but after dry very hard
Hi, i am really looking forward to trying this recipe!! ^__^ but i have seen other tutorials with a result of cracking after dried. i was wondering, have you ever experienced cracking with this recipe? the other one i saw used cold hand lotion and glycerin, while yours has baby oil.
Hello Madam,
Just happend to see your website and saw the wey to parepare clay too. Can you please tell whether there is a shrinkage though we dont add water? I have bought some clay from Thailand when i got a chance to visit there. Its not shrinking. Please share if you have any recipe for the non-shrinkable clay. Thanks a lot :)
helo madam even i am making cp clay flowers from one year,iam ading coconut oil and glyserin ,is there any thing more to add for cp to make flexible after drying also like thai clay and japanies clay
Can I make a mold for cold porcelain with dried cold porcelain?
I noticed you havent responded to questions/comments in a while but Im going to ask anyways in hopes that you will be able to answer. Mainly I wanted to know if regular Elmers “school” glue can be used in place of Elmers glue all. Also Ive noticed some recipes include glycerin, what will not having it in the recipe youve given do?
To others asking about shrinkage and cracking.. cold porcelain is best used to projects that are thinner. Many times the cracking is the result of either not enough oil or having a project which is too large and the shrinkage is causing it to crack. If you are making larger projects, use polymer clay. Cold porcelain is best used to flower petals, hair, eyes, or other things that are smaller or have small parts you can put together.
School glue is a PVA glue so it should work fine. I’ve never made cold porcelain with glycerin so I don’t know what the difference would be.
Thank you for answering, I wasn’t sure since I havent seen a recipe that said you could use elmers school glue, they all say the glue all and considering glue all is twice as much as the regular school glue, I figure why not save money.
Youre work is absolutely beautiful btw.
Thanks again.
hi thank you for posting this and I have this question
I made the clay but its all lumpy and very difficult to mold , kinda stretchy. What should I do? Did I cook it wrong?
I think you might have either cooked it a bit too long or maybe didn’t mix the ingredients evenly. It shouldn’t be that stretchy so I’m leaning towards it being cooked too long or maybe too hot.
Thank you for answering! Next time i’ll cook for less, and maybe use a sifter for the cornstarch?
[...] can be made from materials in one’s home: cornstarch, oil and glue. A recipe can be found at Noadi’s Art. Sheryl also directs us to her other site for more recipes: Creating with Cold Porcelain. In [...]
Hi, I made cold porcelain recently yesterday and I tried adding oil and a small amount of water but whenever I try to shape it, the clay falls apart and it isn’t stretchy. I think it was because I heated it up too much and I put cornstarch after I heated it because it looked mushy… so now I have a dry cold porcelain. Do you think there’s a way to fix this?
Thanks!
Hi I just made my cold porcelain and it’s hard and doesn’t bend and when I made it
2hrs ago it was perfect …urgent please help!
How do I get it to be soft again? Is there anyway I
Can fix it without making another batch?
do this handmade cold porcelain turns bad? i need a quick reply. Thanks:)
Once the cold porcelain has dried it won’t go bad however if store unused cold porcelain too long it can start to mold because of the water in it.
Thanks. Hope you have a nice day:)