cold porcelain dough

I discovered that a batch of cold porcelain I made in February is still usable. Hard to work with, but adding small drops of Elmers glue to the dough it makes it malleable again. This is the first time a batch lasts this long. I tried to take a few pictures to illustrate how I model a rose and I apologize for the abysmal quality of the images. Not an excuse, but in a few pics I was holding both cell phone and dough. Needless to say, you get what you shoot for… or something like it.

A Rose

This is more or less what you need to create a rose.

I start with modeling the cone that will support the structure of the finished rose. The petals are made by flattening the small spheres between my fingers.

Then, I wrap the petal around the cone like a tight scarf.

The second petal I add is not as tight as the first one, but more loosely embraces the stem.

I keep adding petals, leaving them more and more open as I go around, while I pinch the base.

Finally, I have a fully formed rose.

I cut the rose from the cone and create the stem by rolling the remaining dough between thumb and index fingers. I repeat the process with a second flower and I add a rosebud.

Close up of the small composition. To create the rosebud I make an incision on one end of an elongated cylinder and then I cover it with a snug petal.

I had to have some fun with the picture as well. Paint.NET oil filter on a resized canvas to accommodate my little piece of wisdom.

AKA Cornstarch Dough or Cold Porcelain Dough

About ten or twelve years ago I started using a homemade modeling dough that was sturdy and durable when air dried and required a few cheap ingredients to make. After years spent working with the well known salt dough, I was looking for something that didn’t disappear before my eyes when the weather turned humid. At the time I was living in a small maritime town and all my sculpting efforts tended to dissolve in a poodle of salty goo. I found the recipe for the cornstarch dough almost by mistake, but I tried it nonetheless, and I have been loyal to it ever since. Recently, I saw that there is a commercial cornstarch dough sold at craft stores. It is quite expensive, but if you are in a hurry, and not sure if the fumes coming from cooking the mix of cornstarch and Elmer’s glue on your stove are healthy, I suggest to go for it.

The Recipe

The Ingredients:

One cup of cornstarch flour
One cup of Elmer’s glue or any other brand of glue with similar characteristics
One tablespoon of vegetable oil
One tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar
One old, no-stick pan
One wooden spoon

How to do it:

Mix the ingredients in the pan and once you have a thick dough turn on the stove and cook it on medium low, stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough comes away in one single piece from the pan. Turn off the stove, remove the dough from it, put it to rest on a cold surface, wait until you can safely handle it without scalding your skin, and work it as if it were pizza dough. When you have thoroughly worked the dough and there are no lumps in it, wrap it in plastic film, and finally store it inside a plastic bag. Remember, the cornstarch dough dries completely if exposed to the air and it becomes hard as porcelain. You can mix drop of food coloring, or acrylic paint, with the freshly prepared batch to obtain colored dough. I personally prefer painting the dough after a piece is done.

A final, important note: clean the pan and the wooden spoon immediately after you have used them and store them away. Do not use them for cooking food.

Other places where I talk about Cold Porcelain and its awesomeness:

Author Gabriela Popa has a blog where guests talk about anything but writing, and this is my humble contribution.

Here is a lens about cold porcelain I created for Squidoo.

Monica La Porta

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