Products from cold porcelain can be made by both beginning sculptors and children, especially since it is very interesting to work with it. Cold porcelain is absolutely safe to use.
Cold porcelain is one of the cheapest, most pliable and accessible materials. Even very small products can be sculpted from it. After all, there is clay and puff pastry, and small parts can also be made from them, but porcelain has a great advantage over them - it does not need to be baked, it dries on its own in the fresh air in two days.
Modeling from this material develops fine motor skills of the hands; jewelry, pendants, flowers, greeting cards, and paintings are made from it.
The first writings about modeling from cold porcelain were found in Chinese treatises. About art and sculpture. Cold porcelain was invented in Argentina in the early 19th century. A similar recipe was used at the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg. As the story goes, the first flowers were made in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century by Pyotr Ulyanovich Ivanov, they were used to decorate perfume bottles for the emperor and his family.
Recipe
Consider one of the recipes for making porcelain:
- 1 cup rice or corn starch;
- 1 cup PVA glue;
- 2 tablespoons glycerin;
- 1 tablespoon of rich baby cream.
Mix all ingredients thoroughly and let steep for 15-20 minutes. Do not store in the refrigerator or leave at room temperature for more than 2 hours.
- The product can be painted only after complete drying, but not earlier than a day later.
- Porcelain can be painted with oil, acrylic paints, and gouache. Coloring with water-based paints (food coloring) should be avoided.
- When working with porcelain, so that it does not stick to your hands, lubricate your hands with cream.
- Recipes that contain water are fragile and short-lived.
- If you add 1 tablespoon of citric acid to the composition, the product will be stronger and more durable, since it creates a preservation effect.
- Do not store near water or in direct sunlight.
- For storage, optimal temperature conditions must be maintained. At 10°C the structure will collapse. At high temperatures, the structure also collapses - the material shrinks and crumbles.
- To ensure that the products last as long as possible, they are coated with varnish. Thus, the product is protected from moisture, color and shape are preserved.
- It is recommended to use all the porcelain at a time, but if there is any left, store it in a plastic bag or tightly sealed container.
- The surface of the products can be sprinkled with small beads, seed beads, and sand.
- If the porcelain material sits for a long time, it becomes liquid. It can also be used. Using a medical syringe, you can draw or write with it, after pre-treating the surface with glue.
Tools required for work:
- rolling pin and cutting board;
- scissors;
- tweezers;
- wire cutters;
- toothpick or knitting needle;
- brushes and paints;
- gloves;
- thin wire;
- PVA glue.
Product Description
For beginners, the easiest way is to start sculpting flowers. And caring for them is simple: just blow on the product with a hairdryer to remove dust.
Sakura
We divide the material into 2 parts: one part is white, and the other is pink (you can pre-paint it soft pink). From each color we make blank blocks, as in the photo, for the petals, and we make the white block thicker.
We connect the blanks together along the length and cut them into small rectangles.
Make the base of the petal pink and the edges white. To do this, glue the petals together with PVA, and in the middle, using a toothpick, make a hole for the stem (wire).
From the previously prepared blocks, you need to form flower petals, connect them together, and make a hole inside for the stem (wire).
We “seat” the buds on a cup-leaf green at the base and white at the edges, secure it and make a stem.
The branch of the sakura harvest should be the same as the real sakura. Each branch is collected separately after complete drying. The buds must be twisted using wire.
Now the sakura can be placed in a vase.
Rose
Take a piece of porcelain, about the size of a pea, and roll it out in your palm. After this you need to make a drop.
Using a toothpick, roll out a droplet and roll it into a tube.
We attach subsequent petals to it in a checkerboard pattern. To secure the petals, you can use PVA glue.
Such flowers can be placed in a vase, or they can also be used to decorate a greeting card or a painting.
Video on the topic of the article
The video contains detailed master classes on making products from cold porcelain.
Cold porcelain is an accessible, cheap and most pliable material for modeling today. Working with cold porcelain is absolutely safe and does not require any special skills or knowledge; even a small child can engage in such creativity. You can prepare the material at home, that is, you don’t need to run around the shops and look for something special to make your dreams come true, the joy of touching art to create a unique decoration or piece of furniture with your own hands.
In appearance, cold porcelain resembles clay or plasticine, but after drying it becomes very hard. When sculpting from it, you can use any type of jewelry, any accessories, from small beads and beads, shells, buttons, twigs or dried flowers, to textiles of any structure - threads or rags left over from knitting, embroidery or tailoring. The surface of a product using the cold porcelain technique can be painted, sprinkled with small materials (sand, beads), and varnished.
The history of the creation of cold porcelain
The history of this modeling material dates back to the first years of the 19th century; records about it and the first products date back to that time. According to data, cold porcelain was invented by the Argentines, but there is no exact information about its origin and the history of its invention. There is much more information about the Russian master Ivanov Peter, who worked at the imperial porcelain factory and already at the beginning of the 19th century created unique products from a special type of porcelain. If you believe the archival documents of this St. Petersburg plant, it was Pyotr Ulyanovich who created the first flowers from cold porcelain. They were intended to decorate perfume bottles and eau de parfum, which were supplied to the emperor and his family.
But there is also earlier evidence of the existence of this material. In Chinese treatises on art and sculpture there are many descriptions of modeling from cold porcelain, but it is called differently, but its recipe is absolutely similar to the one used by Peter Ivanov.
Features of cold porcelain products
Products made from this material are extremely beautiful, but no less demanding. They must be stored or installed away from moisture and direct sunlight. You need to understand that cold porcelain is a polymer clay that can absorb moisture and become limp and lose color from exposure to sunlight. Vases with stucco, flowers and other decorations made of cold porcelain cannot be placed on a window or near a water source.
In rooms where objects made of this material are located, the optimal temperature regime for them must be maintained. If the air is colder than 10º C, the structure will collapse, as moisture particles in the composition crystallize. High temperatures also destroy cold porcelain - it simply dries out and crumbles.
You can extend the “life” of cold porcelain products using varnish coatings. They will not only protect against moisture, but also help maintain the shape, color and shine of the surface.
What can be created from cold porcelain
From this material you can sculpt everything - from women's jewelry to small interior items. Hair clips decorated with flowers made from this material look very original. For children, together with your children you can create fairy-tale characters, heroes of their favorite cartoons, which will decorate their room.
Many creative housewives decorate pots of indoor plants with cold porcelain moldings, frames, lamps and flowerpots.
A unique interior decoration will be garlands of flowers, greenery, animal or house figurines, and themed compositions made of cold porcelain. In addition, you can make an original and inexpensive gift for friends or loved ones.
How to prepare cold porcelain at home
Preparing polymer clay for modeling is not difficult. The simplest recipe for cold porcelain is rice or corn starch, PVA glue, glycerin and regular baby cream in a ratio of 1:1 (cups of glue and starch) and 2:1 (tablespoons of glycerin and cream).
The ingredients must be thoroughly mixed and left for 10-20 minutes. They will dissolve mutually, and the mass will take on the consistency that is ideal for modeling. Under no circumstances should the prepared material be placed in the refrigerator or stored at room temperature for more than 2 hours. You need to sculpt immediately and it is advisable to use up the entire volume of prepared material.
Some masters add citric acid to the mass. Products made from such porcelain are stored much longer, since the acid creates a preservation effect.
You can find examples of formulations containing water, but such compositions are fragile and not durable. Water, under the influence of external factors, reacts with other ingredients of the polymer clay composition, as a result of which an unpleasant odor may appear, the shape of the product may change, and its strength is significantly reduced.
To change color, food coloring and chalk are most often used. But the surface of souvenirs made of cold porcelain can be painted after it has completely dried, no earlier than a day after the end of modeling.
Handicrafts and handicrafts constantly attract creative individuals who know how to create real works of art from inanimate objects, the memory of which can last for years. Similar words can be used to describe decorations made of cold porcelain, most often made in a floral theme.
Their external fragility and sophistication sometimes amazes those around them so much that they are unable to take their eyes off them - they so closely resemble living plants. Some craftswomen manage to create such hoops, brooches and hairpins that have no analogues in the whole world. Yes, it should be so, because handmade guarantees exclusivity to any product.
To prove these words, we invite you to look at photos of some of the author’s works posted on the vast Internet.
How much does this hoop with lingonberries cost:
The decoration with blueberries looks no less beautiful:
In addition, brooches that resemble miniature flower arrangements can also be made from it:
Almost natural bouquets used to decorate formal halls, wedding feasts and other things:
And if desired, they can become an original addition to the home interior, resembling baskets of flowers or flowerpots on the window:
Although, of course, from such a universal material as cold porcelain, you can create anything: figurines, toys, souvenirs, exclusive compositions, decorative jewelry and much more.
What is cold porcelain
Having talked about what wonderful works can be done with its help, let’s move on to the most interesting question for beginners and talk about what cold porcelain is and what it consists of. In fact, it is a product that does not require baking in the oven. It is also called self-hardening - products made from it harden within 24 hours.
Cold porcelain recipe
For those who have decided to try their hand at this for the first time, it would be wiser to buy ready-made material, but those who like to do everything with their own hands may well try to prepare it at home.
To do this, you need to mix together: 1 cup corn starch, 1 cup PVA glue (White), 1 tbsp. l. liquid glycerin, 1 tsp. lemon juice or citric acid and 1 tbsp. l. fat cream. Mix these ingredients together, place in a small saucepan and put on low gas. Cook, stirring constantly, until a sticky dough forms. Next, remove the mixture from the heat and place it on a glass board greased with rich cream. The latter must also be applied to your hands and begin kneading the dough until it becomes elastic and elastic. Immediately after this, apply a small amount of cream to its surface and immediately wrap it in film.
The material can be stored in a transparent container with a tightly closed lid. At the same time, it must always be wrapped in plastic film, since when it comes into contact with air, the porcelain will immediately begin to harden.
Of course, when preparing it for the first time, you will not be able to avoid mistakes, and therefore the product may turn out brittle and not very attractive in appearance. After all, the correctly selected type of glue, starch and other ingredients plays a big role here.
Materials required for sculpting
Professional craftsmen use a whole range of special tools to make flowers in their work, but to begin with, you can limit yourself to a minimum number of devices.
So, to make flowers it will be enough to prepare something like stack(a metal stick with a rounded end on one side and a sharp end on the other). Homemade knitting needles or an awl will do instead. Although, if you wish, it still makes sense to buy a real stack - it is made of a substance to which clay does not stick, which is very convenient to use. In general, a stack is necessary in order to roll out the clay or form the necessary relief on its surface.
In addition to this, the master will also need small scissors with pointed ends. These may be the most ordinary nail scissors. With their help, it will be convenient to cut cold porcelain into the necessary pieces, as well as shape its edges.
And in order for the plant leaves to acquire a beautiful rounded shape, you will also need stack with a ball at the end. Moreover, there may be more than one, but not many, because sometimes balls of different diameters are required. If you don’t have a professional tool, you can replace it with something resembling it.
Self-hardening clay does not have the ability to stick together, and therefore to attach individual parts of the product it is necessary to use glue. It is important that it is good, and when it dries it acquires a transparent tint. This can be the same PVA glue (only without the White inscription - when it dries it becomes white), latex glue or “Moment Crystal”.
In addition to all this, it is useful for the formation of plant stems type tape(you can buy it at any florist shop) green in color, wire(or floral rods), round pliers(for bending wire) and wire cutters. In addition to them, it would not be a bad idea to think about purchasing molds and cutters.
Molds are special textured surfaces that display the structure of a particular leaf or petal of a plant. At first, you can do without them, but if you want to make your work more perfect, you can use a textured glass board or real plant leaves, from which you can simply make an imprint if you first lubricate them with cream so that the material does not stick to them.
As for the above cutters, then they are the most ordinary metal molds, made in the form of rounded or pointed leaves, as well as flowers of different shapes and sizes. Instead, you can always get by with hand-drawn templates or any other molds you have at home.
Yes, and one more thing. To give the product color or shade, you should use oil or acrylic paints. The latter need to be lightly dripped onto a small piece of clay and kneaded thoroughly. They can also be replaced with ordinary watercolors, gouache, or whatever coloring substance is at hand.
Well, that seems to be all that a novice sculptor might need.
Working with cold porcelain
Making flowers from polymer clay is in many ways reminiscent of modeling from plasticine, and you can see this for yourself by watching the master class below on making a small flower.
Finally, I would like to note that you can find many similar lessons, as well as detailed instructions on how to perform this or that element of the plant. If this type of creativity captivates you, it is likely that it will soon turn not only into an exciting hobby, but into a profitable business, because hand-made jewelry and objects are now very much appreciated and are in extraordinary demand.
I want to share with you how I made beads from cold porcelain. I'm not very good with porcelain, there were attempts to cook it, but... failure with this matter never inspired me to do any creative crafts. The recipe came out without cooking right away and ideas immediately popped into my head.
And now the process itself. I made porcelain without cooking. Recipes can be viewed
Divided into pieces and painted with oil paints.
I rolled out the flatbread and divided the white flatbread into three parts.
She put it in a stack, alternating a white layer with a colored layer.
Cut it into pieces. In making beads, they make different “sausages” to achieve different patterns, but I took a different, more simplified path. Because there is still little experience in this matter.
Then I stacked these layered pieces on top of each other, I needed large beads, they turned out to be the size of cherries.
I twisted beads out of these “puff pastries”, not pressing too hard so that the layers would not stick together and would create cracks.
I carefully pierced a hole with a knitting needle, put it on skewers and left it to dry. They took a very long time to dry, on the fourth day after drying I used a drill to widen the holes, I needed larger ones (I couldn’t do it right away, the bead was falling apart), so the inside was still a little soft, and the next day they dried completely.
And one more option using these beads as an example. Here are two colors, I also wound the beads, left them to dry, after about two hours, I mercilessly crushed the bead, it already had a dry crust, then I began to form it into a bead again with my fingers, trying not to drown the dry crust into the inside of the bead.
I chose a soft spot, pierced it with a knitting needle, and sent it to dry.
After complete drying I sanded it.
This is the finished first version of the beads. Sanded and varnished. I have acrylic semi-gloss, matte would be better.
This is the second ready-made version of the beads.
These are the “granite” beads I got.
further words of the author
I want to share with you how I made beads from cold porcelain. I’m not very good with porcelain, there were attempts to cook it, but... failure with this matter never inspired me to do any creative crafts.
The recipe came out without cooking right away and ideas immediately popped into my head. My main hobby is weaving paper tubes and I really like products with the addition of beads, so I decided to make some of these beads for myself.
Having watched a lot of master classes on making beads, but mostly they are made of plastic, for some reason I couldn’t find one made of porcelain. Dear HF craftsmen, you already have a lot of experience with it, can you tell me why in making beads they prefer plastic? I've never dealt with clay at all.
And now the process itself. I made porcelain without cooking. Here is this recipe http://stranamasterov.ru/node/696004
2.
Divided into pieces and painted with oil paints
3.
I rolled out the flatbread and divided the white flatbread into three parts.
4.
Placed it in a stack, alternating a white layer with a colored one
5.
Cut it into pieces. In making beads, they make different “sausages” to achieve different patterns, but I took a different, more simplified path. Because there is still little experience in this matter.
6.
Then I stacked these layered pieces on top of each other, I needed large beads, they turned out to be the size of cherries
7.
I twisted beads out of these “puff pastries”, not pressing very hard so that the layers would not stick together and would create cracks.
8.
I carefully pierced a hole with a knitting needle, put it on skewers and left it to dry. They took a very long time to dry, on the fourth day after drying I used a drill to widen the holes, I needed bigger ones (I couldn’t do it right away, the bead was falling apart), so the inside was still a little soft, and the next day they dried completely
9.
And one more option using these beads as an example. There are two colors here, I also wound the beads and left them to dry, after about two hours, I mercilessly crushed the bead, it already had a dry crust, then I began to shape it into a bead again with my fingers, trying not to drown the dry crust into the inside of the bead.
10.
I chose a soft place and pierced it with a knitting needle, sent it to dry
11.
After complete drying I sanded it
12.
This is the finished first version of the beads. Sanded and varnished. I have acrylic semi-gloss, matte would be better
13.
This is the second ready-made version of beads
14.
These are the “granite” beads I got
15.