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.
Another excellent 2-part video demo from Marisol Romero, showing us, step-by step, how to make the cute cartoon kitty shown above, using cold porcelain. Marisol is speaking Spanish in the videos but, even if you don't understand what she is saying, you should be able to follow along easily. Every step is clearly shown.
This would be a good beginner's project because of the character's simplicity! Instead of cold porcelain, many other air-dry clays would work as well...especially the soft pre-colored brands such as Deco Clay, Cloud Clay, Hearty Clay, Makin's Clay and other brands of soft, or semi-soft, pre-colored clays. This would also be a suitable project for the not-quite-as-soft clays such as Creative Paperclay and LaDoll. You would just have to pre-tint the clay first or paint when cured. (see menu tab above for tinting tips) The clays I would NOT recommend are the heavier clays designed more for throwing on wheel and the low-price "school-grade" clays such as Crayola Air Dry Clay (which has a tendency to crack easy).
This tutorial to create a cute kitten sitting in a flower pot is from French artist Brigida Clement. She has allowed translation to English, with proper credits to her original, of course. Please visit her website at Babou Bricole.
Cute animal figures like this kitten can be made with just about any type of air-dry clay but they are particularly suitable to cold porcelain and the soft clays such as Makin's Clay, Cloud Clay or Model Magic. When working with soft clays, it is important to let some parts dry for a few hours before assembling...such as between steps 7 and 8 of this project. Otherwise the soft body may collapse under the weight of the head.
The clay pot is approximately 1.5 inches tall. Add some clay flowers or something else of your choice to personalize the finished project.
Today's post is a reminder that I have a separate blog for modeling with cold porcelain. Cold Porcelain Tutorials is all about clay recipes, video demos and step-by-step tutorials specifically related to modeling cute figures with cold porcelain. Flower-making is also popular with cold porcelain and you'll find some links to websites with cold porcelain flowers for their topic! So, if you're interested in this versatile, homemade clay, please visit Cold Porcelain Tutorials. The featured demo for today is the cow shown above.
Please see my other blog, Cold Porcelain Tutorials, for a step-by-step, 4-part, video demo creating the cute cold porcelain Jester Clown figure shown above!
Follow this tutorial to make a beautiful white rose floral arrangement with green and red accents. The green buds are made with clay but the red berries are purchased fillers. Delight clay (lightweight clay made by Creative Paperclay) is used in demo but many other brands of air-dry clay would be suitable, as well as cold porcelain. See step-by-step tutorial for beautiful clay roses.
Guilherme Pires is a clay artist from Brazil who creates the cutest clown figures and other clever characters. Using homemade cold porcelain, wire, foam, simple tools and a lot of imagination, he comes up with some very unique art dolls he calls 'guibonecos'. Some have very sweet faces, some are funny and some are quite strange. LOL Visit his blog at http://guibonecos.blogspot.com/.
In the 3 videos below, he shares with us how it's done. Quite the production line he has going in these videos! *sigh* He accomplishes so much in one day!!
In the first video, he makes the clay and takes it into his modeling room where he creates a series of heads and models the arms, hands and big feet for his clowns.
In the second video, he assembles all the pieces with wire and foam and paints the adorable faces. The last video shows his creative costuming, wigging and finishing.
This angel magnet is made with cold porcelain, but many brands of air-dry clay would also be suitable for this easy project. Soft, easy to mold clays work best.
Pre-tint your white clay with a little acrylic paint, color paste made for cake decorating & sugarcraft or colorants made especially for cold porcelain. If you're not familiar with colorants, below is an example of cake colorants that are available in paste form from cake decorating suppliers and at Amazon. Colorants specifically for cold porcelain are not readily available in USA, but you might find a supplier on the web.
Tutorial is in Spanish. If your browser doesn't automatically translate to your language of choice, you can find a translate tool at http://translate.google.com/
Yesterday we shared a step-by-step tutorial of how to model a basic doll's head with cold porcelain (or other soft air-dry clays). Today we have a 2-part video demo by Rosangela Alencar, showing her methods for shaping a cold porcelain (CP) doll's head. Very similar to yesterday's tutorial with a few added details....plus the benefit of watching it on video! ;-)
Well worth watching to see how she neatly wraps the Styrofoam ball with CP and shapes the head. It's amazing how quickly she shapes a nose! She makes it look so easy!! ;-) Also take note of how she uses her fingers to measure placement of mouth and chin and how she forms neck at the same time she is shaping those pudgy cheeks!
This Hibiscus tutorial shows you how to make a Hibiscus flower with Hearty Clay. Many other brands of air-dry clay would work, as well as cold porcelain. A set of flower-shaping tools are recommended to make this flower but you might be able to substitute tools you already have.
This flower is a bit challenging to make and is probably not a good choice for your first clay flower! ;-)
Here's a step-by-step demo for you to create some attractive yellow flowers with cold porcelain paste. Pages are excerpts from the Spanish language "Biscuit" magazine. No need to translate...the photos show each step clearly! (click to enlarge)
These flowers could also be made with Deco Clay, Makin's Clay or just about any air-dry clay!
Hi all, Sorry I've been MIA for over a month now and haven't posted any new tutorials or other clay news. Lots of things happening in real life have left no time for hobbies. One of them is arrival of new granddaughter! Cute as a button.
For your clay project today, how about making a memo board? This one may interest those of you with a country-rustic decor. Hen and chickens and raffia and gingham. Create a memo board using chicken wire...or make it a corkboard...which is what I would do! Then decorate with these cute chicks made from homemade cold porcelain. Memo board instructions.
Cold porcelain is a very versitile air-dry clay that you can make at home with simple ingredients. It cures/dries to a hard, durable 'porcelain-like' finish. In this video, Sangeeta Shah shows you how to make her basic cold porcelain recipe, which she cooks in microwave for just a few minutes. I've followed this recipe myself and I can testify that it is very easy to make cold porcelain this way!
It's hard to know when it all started, but it's clear that it was in the 80's when it exploded. The work of Marta Ballina in cake decoration (using sugar paste) made the foundation, and then it was only a matter of overcoming some prejudices. Certainly some TV shows in the last half of the 90's and easy access to supplies (many of them used also in cake decoration) did the rest.
