DIY Tutorial For Making Your Own Cold Porcelain Clay

I mostly work with oven-bake polymer clays but I do play with them all, on occasion. Of the air drying clay ones I like the effect of cold porcelains best. They have a nice delicate translucence when they’re left white.

Because the ingredients are water-soluble I highly recommend you use a water-based varnish on projects just as Jo the tutorial maker does. Her site has what I consider the basic cold porcelain clay recipe and there’s a rose-making project as well.

Of the homemade clays, I like this sort of one the best. The results look good and the material dries to a nice finish. It is definitely not the easiest one to use – it sticks to everything I find – but has fewer cracks as it finishes.

1 cup Cornflour (cornstarch)
1 cup PVA glue
2 tablespoons Baby oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar
(my lemon wasn’t very juicy so I needed to use 2)
Non-greasy moisturizer
Plastic food bag (to store clay)

Pinch bowls and pottery bowls are very popular right now so make sure to have a go at making your very own small pinch bowls.

also:
Saucepan or microwavable mixing bowl
(although none of the ingredients are toxic,
it is recommended that you use a dedicated saucepan/bowl
for crafting so as not to risk any cross-contamination)
Spoon (to use just for making clay)
Cooker hob or microwave

What to do

1. Decide how you are going to heat your clay, either on a cooker hob or in a microwave. If you are using a cooker hob you will need a saucepan, if you are using a microwave then you will need a microwavable bowl.

2. Place the measured cornflour (cornstarch) and PVA glue in the pan/bowl and mix together.

3. Stir in the baby oil and lemon juice.

4. Gently heat until it forms a solid ball – It will gradually go lumpy, then clump together to form a ball. The clay will get quite tough to stir as it thickens.

**If heating on the cooker hob then continuously stir over a gentle heat until it has formed a solid ball with no liquid left**
Mine took about 8 minutes.

**If heating with a microwave, cook for 30 seconds then stir thoroughly, continue to alternate heating for 30 seconds and stirring until it has formed a solid ball with no liquid left**

5. Spread a small amount of moisturizer on your work surface, tip the clay out and knead until cold (it will be hot to start with so be very careful) – fill your pan/bowl with hot water to soak.

**TOP TIP – I found that even though I had used the moisturizer the clay still stuck to my work surface so I rubbed a little moisturiser on the palms of my hands and pressed & kneaded the clay just between the palms of my hands (it didn’t stick). I kneaded it in this way for about 20 minutes until it had gone cold – TOP TIP**