Tuesday

Make This Cute Pen Doll with CP



A cute little doll made of cold porcelain that is also a pen with pen holder!
You may not understand the language spoken in this 4-part video demo, but the steps taken are very clearly shown!

Thursday

Create these cute doll figures with CP

From Arte Brasil TV show...Create cute skinny-legged doll figures with cold porcelain (video demonstration).

Saturday

Create a Dolls Head with Cold Porcelain [step-by-step]



Many cold porcelain figures, dolls and animals, all start by modeling a basic cute head and then adding the eyes, expression, hair, etc to create the character (such as the doll shown above).   This 'basic cute head' tutorial was originally published in a Portuguese magazine and I have done my best to translate the instructions into English for those that cannot read the Portuguese.  .

Materials needed are some cold porcelain paste (or other soft air-dry-clay) and a Styrofoam ball.   Tools used are your fingers, a cutting tool, a crochet hook and a ball-end tool.    The first step is to tint your clay/cold porcelain a peach tone or other flesh tone unless your prefer tinting or painting after it has cured.   

  

Next, wrap the Styrofoam ball in clay or cold porcelain (CP).   Select enough CP paste to completely cover the foam ball (approximately 2" ball shown here).  Press the foam ball into the CP and shape the CP around it 

   

Close any gaps that appear as you wrap the CP so that you completely enclose the foam ball inside.  Avoid trapping any air. 

With the palms of your hands, smooth and shape the CP into an egg shape.   Using your thumbs, enhance the curvature of the nose and forehead.


Refine the shape of the head and add a neck.


With a crochet hook, push the CP paste from the bottom up and then form the nose with your fingers 



.....leaving a pointed nose shape.


Strengthen the shape around the area of the eye with your thumb.   Add nostrils.


To mark the mouth, envision an imaginary line that creates a cross between the nose and neck and from one cheek to the other cheek.    Where the imaginary line crosses,  insert the tool straight in to form a mouth.
(note:  The numbering of photos in original tutorial skipped #4...it's not missing)


With the end of a crochet hook, create a diagonal crease in each corner of mouth.


Using the diagonal mark as a guide, use your thumb to lift the cheek and indent the chin, smoothing down toward the neck.



With the small end of a ball-end tool, shape the lower lip....running tool from one side to another.


Shape the upper lip with the same tool, using gentle movements.


Define the corners of the mouth by dimpling with large end of ball-end tool.


With smaller end of ball-end tool, create small mark on top of the upper lip.


Ears ... create 2 ears and glue onto the head of the doll.   Shape 2 equal amounts of CP into 2 small ovals.  Roll between fingers to indent slightly.  Attach an ear to each side of head using round-end tool to apply pressure to center of ear.  

After CP has dried and cured, flesh color can be painted (if you didn't pre-tint) and eye decals can be glued on or eyes painted on.  Hair can be molded from additional CP paste or various types of doll hair material can be glued on.  Lots of  different characters can be made by varying the embellishments.  The boy doll and girl doll shown below both started with this basic "cute" head.   The boy's hair is molded clay, but the girl has purchased doll hair glued on.   The head for the little kitty was modeled in a similar way as basic doll's head.




Monday

Model a Dolls Head with Cold Porcelain [video]



Today we have a 2-part video demo by Rosangela Alencar, showing her methods for shaping a cold porcelain (CP) doll's head. 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!


Part 1...Getting Started



Part 2....Adding Details

Sunday

CP Storage Tips

Store cold porcelain paste in an airtight bag or tightly wrapped in plastic.    Sometimes I do both...wrap in plastic first and then in an airtight bag!

Try using a product that sucks air out of plastic bags.    Ziploc makes an inexpensive one.  There's some new ones on the market too that might work even better.


       

There's some new, latching plastic food storage bins on the market.  Small ones are inexpensive and claim to be airtight.  Made by Sterlite...the type with a rubber gasket to help seal.   I bought some and really like the way they latch.


Do not store really damp CP for a long period of time, this could make the paste moldy.

Store CP paste in a dry area at room temperature. Do not refrigerate, but you can freeze.

Paste that has been tinted with color will dry out faster than non-colored paste.

Don't store different colored paste in the same container if they could touch each other and transfer color.  Wrap separately in plastic wrap first.

Please comment if you have some storage tips to share!  ;-)

Saturday

Blog is silent today....

To honor and remember all those innocent people who were murdered on 9/11...

Thursday

What is Cold Porcelain?

One of my first creations
following a Porcelana Fria tutorial.
Because this blog is all about Cold Porcelain, I guess I should have answered this question in first post...but I forgot!  ;-)

Cold Porcelain is a self-hardening, air-dry clay.  Cold Porcelain [CP] is not an actual 'porcelain', but, if a whitener is added to the recipe, the finish becomes opaque and porcelain-like. The 'cold' refers to the fact that it does not have to be baked or fired.

Cold Porcelain  is comprised of cornstarch, glue and other ingredients that are heated together to make a paste.  CP can be purchased as a ready-made paste but can also be made at home fairly inexpensively.

Various recipes for creating the CP paste at home can be found all over the internet and on this blog...see post.  Some recipes heat the paste on stovetop, some in the microwave!    It only takes a few minutes.

CP has a wonderful, soft texture and doesn't need all the pre-conditioning required with polymer clay.    It is a versatile clay;  easy to use and requires few specialized tools (a basic set of inexpensive plastic sculpting tools will do).   With CP, you can create natural-looking flowers, collectable figurines, cake toppers and many decorative items. You can work large or small.  I've seen some very large figures made with CP.

Cold Porcelain clay is relatively new to the USA (but is rapidly growing in popularity).  Currently there's not many commercially-made CP brands available (in USA).    In South America, CP is also known as biscuit, porcelana fria, masa flexible and pasta di mais.  A few websites are beginning to import some of the brands from South America, which makes purchase for US residents a lot easier.

As I said above, we'll be sharing some recipes here, along with tips, tricks and tutorials, so you can make your own CP paste and your own figurines!   See Recipes to Make Your Own Cold Porcelain  for  a few recipes and a video demo.

Wednesday

Make this CP Cutie: Sweet Bear Magnet



A cute little bear made of cold porcelain.   Step by step tutorial by Barbara Osias includes painting tips for the expressive face using a variety of markers!
http://barbaraosias.blogspot.com/search/label/Cold%20Porcelain