Note: these aren’t polymer clays
. They are a variety of modeling clays suited for different purposes. Some are great for kids because they’re completely harmless and soft. Others are better for a finer grain or take paint better. Ones with glues and finer starches like corn starch will have a nicer finish. Some can be used for techniques similar to polymer clays – I’ve caned with salt doughs for example, in a limited way – and others aren’t suitable for the fine detail you get with PVC based oven bake polymer clay.
If you are looking for an airdrying clay as an alternative I highly recommend Das Airdrying white clay
If you love modelling clays of any kind then you may want to consider making your own DIY clay. If you are not already doing so, you may be surprised at how much money it can save you and how easy it really is. Take a look at this list of 7 different clay recipes and give one a try!
1- 3 Clay Recipes from The Artful Crafter. These are for a cold porcelain variety and make good, fine-grained modelling clays. The article has great tips for colouring and working the materials as well.
2- Jewelry Clay from Homemade Clay Recipe. (link no longer working) This is what I could call more of a salt dough recipe. It’ll have a moderate grain and needs to be finished with a sealer to keep humidity from damaging it over time. It is great for kids though, soft and easy to use.
3- Baking Soda Clay from Etsy Network , nice detailed tutorial for making your own clay
4- How To Make scculpey Clay from eHow is another cornstarch dough type clay.
5- No Bake Polymer Clay from Suzy Homefaker. The pictures in the tutorial are a little misleading being mostly polymer clay (PVC based) clay items but the recipe is a decent cold porcelain clay recipe using glue as a binder and cornstarch as the filler. The result is a fine grain product which you can colour or paint.
6- DIY Air Dry Polymer Clay from Happiness Is Homemade
7- Non-Toxic Oven Clay from The Hippy Homemaker. This is a good one for kids and does, as advertised, make great kid keepsakes. Completely non-toxic, soft and simple to use. Again, I would use a waterproof sealer on it to keep the ingredients from swelling or taking on humidity.
Here is a salt dough recipe from our sister site Craftbits.com.
I wish you’d made the distinction that these are not substitutes for polymer clay and that you can’t use them for many of the techniques people enjoy using polymer for. It’s all too common for newbies to try these homemade recipes and then beat themselves up when they fail miserably making complex canes or detailed sculptures. These are great recipes for modeling clay and have their place, certainly. But confusion just makes for unhappy crafters.
Thanks for taking care of it Elaine. I did see that you weren’t the author of the post. but I’m glad you clarified and fixed it up. Happy claying…of all types!
Ugh. At the time of publication it wasn’t. Removed that link now.
Thank you for sharing! Would any of these recipes work to make garden markers? And, expecting that a sealer is needed, does anyone have a recommendation for something affordable?
Any of the ones that use glue as a base would likely be fine (cold porcelains instead of play doughs or ones with salt or flour) and yes, I would use a sealer.
For my outdoor work I use Varathane outdoor formula waterbased clear gloss which you can get at hardware stores or places like Walmart. Minwax also has a version.
I tried to make leaf bowls with a non cook porcelain receipt I got off the internet. It uses glue, corn starch, lime juice and baby oil. It was fine until we put it in the bowls. Then it began to “sag” and sort of “puddled toward the bottom of the bowl. Can you recommend a good receipt that will keep it’s shape until it dries?
Thanks Janet
Hi Janet!
Stuff with cornstarch is going to slump a bit as it’s non-newtonian solid / liquid (behaves the opposite of what it should for it’s state).
Once you put it in the mold to dry I’d grab a hair dryer or heat gun and speed up the air drying to not give it the chance to pool and slump. Cold porcelain is great stuff but each recipe has it’s quirks.
i disagree with ginger Davis. These clay recipes were around in the 1970’s maybe even longer and you can do wonderful projects with these recipes and they are equal or even better than Polymer Clay.