Cold Porcelain recipe and tips

Ingredients:

2 cups Elmer's white glue

2 cups Cornstarch

1 ½ to 2 tbsp Lemon Juice

2 to 2 ½ tbsp Baby Oil

A dab of lotion or body butter

Mix the wet ingredients in a bowl. Mix thoroughly until blended. Add the cornstarch, and mix again until it becomes gooey.

After mixing everything in (except the lotion), place in a microwave safe bowl and microwave within 15-30 second intervals, depending on the wattage of your microwave. In between the intervals, mix until it becomes more firm and forms into a ball.

Take the clay and put on a board lubricated with lotion or body butter. Wear latex gloves, due to the heat of the clay. Roll and kneed until it is rolled into a semi-firm ball or log. Put in saran wrap and keep in either a ziplock bag or container and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator.

If the clay forms a tear when pulled apart, you successfully made cold porcelain.

Tips:

If the mixture is too dry, add a little more glue. If the mixture is too wet, add a little more cornstarch.

If you want to hasten the drying time, use a blow dryer on the piece. Depending on the wattage of the blow dryer, put it on a lower setting and gently move it around your cold porcelain sculpture or doll. Be gentle, because too much force can destroy your piece.

You can mix with acrylic paint, chalk pastels, makeup powders or ink. Use a little bit of the liquid coloring on the piece of clay you are using. Too much will make the clay soggy and sticky.

You must use cornflour or cornstarch powder only. Other powders and flours will mess things up.

The cold porcelain could be dyed or painted after it's dried. My favorite for dolls is to mix chalk pastels with varnish, and paint the doll with a light coat of the mixture.

For sealing, use water proof varnishes, glazes and/or sealants. Both sprays and paint-able glazes work wonderfully. My personal favorites are sculpy glazes, Duracoat Matte varnish and the droppers of sealant they sell on the site dollyhair.com.

I hope that is of some help to those who are interested in sculpting their own cold porcelain dolls or figurines.