Cold porcelain recipe

Hi all. A couple of weeks ago, I was about to buy some air dry clay for some projects that are long overdue and then remembered making cold porcelain years ago from white bread. I remember it being pretty good and cheap, plus I also wouldn’t have to wait for it to be shipped if I made some. I used the recipe provided by Gina Bellous and Cynthia Howe. For my first try, I followed the method outlined in Dana’s recipe (boiling the liquid on the stove then adding the corn flour). Bad idea. It was very lumpy and hard to mix the lumps out. I kneaded half the dough but even with a lot of kneading, I was still going to have lumps. So I threw it all out and started again, this time halving the recipe (I still ended up with an apple-sized ball of clay). I had read about making it in the microwave, so I mixed everything together first, getting the mix smooth and lump-free, then put it in the microwave for bursts of 15 seconds (full power), stirring between. When the dough was nearly done, I put it in for 13 seconds, and then for the very last one, about 10 seconds I think. It took about 9 bursts. So now it is all kneaded and feels very smooth and lovely. Just so you know, I used baby oil instead of glycerine (it was 1/4 of the price and more likely to get used than glycerine) and used a cheap PVA glue. Also I will be cleaning my little saucepan for days….

I use this sort of stuff for flowers and food mostly. I buy the cheap nail art moulds on Ebay for a couple of dollars. Put a tiny bit into the mould, smooth off the top then twist the mould to pop the item out. No oven needed. But they will shrink a bit so keep that in mind.

You can see in my photo above my 1:12 crabapples that are also great in my 1:24 Black Walnut cottage kitchen. If I was making them in 1:24 scale next time, I would just make the stems shorter. Stay tuned for a tutorial on making the crabapples! Have a great day.