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| One of my first creations following a Porcelana Fria tutorial. |
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.
I've not worked with CP before but am very anxious to try it out. I've worked extensively with paper clay and polymer clays. Love your pieces.
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