Comparing Polymer Clay and Cold Porcelain

DottedKitten has created a video showing us the differences she found between polymer clay and no-bake cold porcelain.   This question comes up often, so I hope you enjoy the video.   Thanks DottedKitten!

New changes in store for New Clay News

Doll made by author (Mary in Oregon) using Creative Paperclay and Robert  McKinley tutorial.

In this, the fifth year of The New Clay News, I've decided to make some format changes.  I'll be converting this blog to a website format for a couple of reasons.   I've gotten involved in too many things (in real life) and just don't seem to have the time any more for daily (or even weekly) blog posts.  Also, I want to make this a great reference site for all the frequently asked questions about air-dry and no-bake clays.   To do that, I plan on adding some more pages of reference material rather than doing any more random posting or how-to tutorials.

All the existing posts will remain in the archives, but, in the future, look for all step-by-step tutorials to be posted at my Air-Dry-Clay (tutorial directory) and, just for cold porcelain, we have Cold Porcelain Tutorials.   Please sign up for RSS or follow those tutorial directories by email.    If you need personal assistance, we still have our Air-Dry-Clay Yahoo Group going strong with over 1200 members!  Join us!

Remember, we're not closing down...we're just changing....so look for more product reviews, more about art dolls, some featured artists, and lots of crafting tips coming soon as our resources for air-dry, self-hardening and no-bake clays grows right along with the popularity of this form of clay modeling!

Tutorial: Clay Rose with Color Gradient

Hi, Sorry I haven't been posting every day like I used to.  I got involved in some local projects around town which have been taking a lot of my time.  More than I expected...you know how that goes!   Because I missed featuring a tutorial on Tuesday... let's have one today!

In this video, the well-known South American clay artist Jorge Rubicce shows us his methods for creating realistic roses using cold porcelain. If you don't understand the language, just mute the video and follow along visually as he demonstrates each step for building the flowers and creating his gradient color effect.  Any of the soft air-dry clays would work as well for this project.

Meet a New Clay: Craft Porcelain

Craft Porcelain by AMACO is a non-toxic, air-dry modeling material that some say is similar to cold porcelain.  According to the manufacturer's description,  Craft Porcelain is ideal for creating flowers, floral decorations, figurines, and other sculptures; dries in 24 hours and has a porcelain-like finish that can be further decorated with oil or acrylic based paints.   Craft Porcelain is currently available in white* plus 6 colors, however, I've heard the colors are being discontinued.

It's Tutorial Tuesday Again!

Three new air-dry clay tutorials this week.

Steampunk Paperclay Book
Paperclay book (shown above) with embellishments such as safety pins
and lots and lots of scrapbooking items!

Clearing Up Some Mis-information About ADC

Happy Independence Day to our friends in USA!

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I'm going to take an opportunity today to rant a little!   Hope you don't mind!  I'm tired of seeing websites passing out mis-information about air-dry clay and I want to set the record straight.

I do a lot of searching and surfing for new air-dry clay information and tutorials and in the past week or two I've come across a number of websites writing about air-dry clay but they don't really know what they're talking about.  These sites are passing around bad information.  It's become my new pet-peeve!

Tutorial Tuesday

Gosh, I can't believe how fast a week can go by sometimes!  It's Tuesday again and, just in case you missed one, it's time to review the new tutorials posted this past week at my Air-Dry Clay Tutorial Directory.  First up we have instructions for creating a life-like Heron using gourds and paperclay.   Some amazing sculptures can be created with these 2 simple materials and Phyllis Sickles shows us how.

Make a Cute Reindeer

Today we have a video demo showing you how to create a cute little reindeer with polymer clay.  But this blog is suppose to be about air-dry clay, right?   It is.   This demo is a good one to use as an example of how to modify a polymer clay tutorial when using air dry clay.   The types of air-dry clays that work best for this sort of project are the soft, pre-colored clays such as Makin's Clay, Hearty Clay,

Make a Clay Poppy

Make some of these colorful Poppies with air-dry clay. Step by step instructions, with photos, are provided by SifBeth. Although this demonstration shows how to make flowers using gumpaste, the techniques are very similar for air-dry clay and cold porcelain flowers. One difference is, if tutorial calls for edible glue, you can use regular glue with air-dry clay flowers. Gumpaste and cold porcelain are both used to create cake toppers....one is edible, one isn't!

If you don't have the proper petal cutter for this tutorial, you can make your own.   See some previous posts for Making Your Own Cutters  and a video with Free Cutting Tool Ideas.

How to Wrap Foam Balls Without Trapping Air

Many air-dry clay projects call for Styrofoam shapes as armatures for figure modeling. On my other blog, "Cold Porcelain Tutorials", we've featured a series of videos from Marisol Romero showing the proper way to wrap Styrofoam shapes with cold porcelain (without getting cracks or trapped air).   The very same methods could be used with any brand of soft air-dry clay.    Check 'Cold Porcelain Tutorials' for video demos showing how to wrap small and large foam balls, half-spheres, double-spheres and more.

How to Create Craft Porcelain Clay Roses

Clay Roses by Linda Peterson

As featured on Livin' the Creative Life, Linda Peterson shares how to create delicate roses from the air-dry clay called "Craft Porcelain"  (from Amaco).    This product is said to be similar to the homemade cold porcelain paste we've often mentioned .... but I'm told by those who've used both products that the

Create these cute dolls with cold porcelain or other air-dry clay.
http://www.mulhercriativa.com.br/biscuit/casal-teen

Materials needed are pre-tinted clay in white, black, blue, yellow, red, brown, green and flesh plus barbeque skewers or lollipop sticks for legs.

Page is written in Portuguese, but lots of good photos show step-by-step without translating ....or use Google Translate. http://translate.google.com/

Marisol's Cold Porcelain Recipe

Cold Porcelain is a "clay" or paste that can be made at home and is composed of white glue and cornstarch. Cold porcelain is known throughout the world by many different names. It is also known as porcelana fria, masa flexible, biscuit, pasta di mais, among others. It is soft, white and flexible and can be modeled into small figures or large. Hard and durable when cured.   Cold porcelain requires no baking to cure and air-dries at room temperature.

There are many recipes available for cold porcelain, including microwave recipes. Which one to use depends on your own experience and what you will be making with the cold porcelain. Some recipes are softer, some harder, some more flexible or rigid.     See my other blog,  "Cold Porcelain Tutorials" for a 2-part video by Marisol Romero of Porcelana Fria Paso a Paso demonstrating her stovetop method for preparing the cold porcelain paste.

Tutorial: Make Some Funny Bunnies

Video demo from TatyanaBel  doesn't say what kind of clay she's using but this would be a good project for the pre-colored air-dry clays such as Cloud Clay, Makin's Clay, Hearty Clay and Model Magic. Cold porcelain should work well for these bunnies also.  Bunnies are colorful and the simple shapes make it kid-friendly.  TatyanaBel says: "This is just to show how easy to create something that can bring an instant smile on your friend's face or someone's you care about. I've created few dozens during Easter and placed them in the kitchen at work. Easter Bunnies had their new friends very quickly!"

How to Make Clay Roses

Today we have a video slideshow from Lydia, demonstrating her method for creating cold porcelain roses.   The  instructional text in the video is written in 4 languages.   You may have to use the PAUSE button in the video player to stop slideshow long enough to read text.

Miniature Teddy Bear

This video demo from sugarcraft artist Aine shows us how to make a tiny miniature teddy bear.   This demo is using gumpaste to create figure, but the process is exactly the same for air-dry clay.   Just use regular glue where she calls for edible glue.    This is a kid-friendly project and suitable for just about any clay, including the softer air-dry clays like Model Magic and Cloud Clay.

How to Make a Miniature Milkshake

Cute Tanpopo shows us an easy way to make a pretty darn realistic miniature milkshake.  You can use just about any air-dry clay to make this tiny milkshake, but demo is using cold porcelain.   She made her milkshakes as charms but this looks to be about the right size for a 1:12 scale miniature soda shop too!

How to Make a Strand of Clay Flowers

This is a 2-part video from msedcolor (Simply Chic Lily) demonstrating how to make simple flowers and then connect them into a strand of flowers.

Tutorial: Clay Flower, Orchid

Video demo by zikomah  showing us how to create a clay orchid.

How to Make Clay Peony

 

This 4-part video demo from Mayen from Way Beyond Cakes shows us how to make a very realistic Peony flower.   She describes this as a "beginners" flower and demonstrates every step in the process in detail.   Mayen is crafting with gumpaste in this demo, but the process is the same for air-dry clay (just use white glue instead of edible glue).    The softer brands of air-dry clay or cold porcelain are usually the best choice for clay flowers.