How to make charm clay?

Question

I am trying to pay less for the clay I use for making charms but they are all so expencive, so I was wondering if anyone knew how to make clay stuff that will dry without cracking? Thanks in advance :* <3

Answer 1

Here is a Cold Porcelain recipe. Cold porcelain is a type of air dry clay that dries hard.



How to make Cold Porcelain



Materials



- 1 cup of cornstarch (DO NOT USE FLOUR)

- 1 cup of school glue

- 2 tbsp baby oil (makes the clay less sticky)

- 2 tbsp vinegar OR lemon juice (this prevents the cold porcelain from rotting)

- lotion (optional)

- a pot or bowl that is microwavable (do not use for food afterwards)



Steps



1.) put 1 cup of school glue and cornstarch in a bowl. Begin mixing.

2.) put 2 tbsp of lemon juice/vinegar and baby oil

3.) Begin mixing (do it well)

4.) Put it in microwave for 30 seconds. Take it out. Mix it well. Repeat this process until the cold porcelain gets a 'dough' texture.

5.) take some saran wrap and lay it on top of a table. Spread some lotion on it and onto your hands as well. Put the cold porcelain on it and begin kneading it. Knead it well and you should end up with a nice cold porcelain.

Answer 2

Try natural clay instead of the polymer one. If you are not baking the clay then I would suggest add a little bit of paper mache soaked in paper glue or german glue (not adhesive). You could add lets say 1 parts of paper mache to 3 to 4 parts clay, and kneed it to mix them well. This will keep it from cracking, and will also make the clay stronger. Then you could enamel it after its dry for further durability. Keep in mind this would only work for natural clays. Alternatively you could also try mixing straw to the clay instead of paper mache.

Answer 3

Sounds like you're asking for various recipes for homemade "air-dry" clays to use for charms. There are all kinds of air-dry clays but they vary a lot in their quality, amount of smoothness, ability to do fine detail, amount of shrinkage, etc.



For "charms" (I assume you mean the kinds of miniatures, etc, being made by teens these days from polymer clay), I'd suggest certain air-dry clays:

homemade:

...bread clay

...salt dough clay

...cold porcelain cornstarch clay

purchased:

...cold porcelain

...some of the Japanese air-dry clays

...Creative Paperclay



As for cracking, that often just depends on the quality of the clay you use and whether you try to speed up drying too much.



You can read more about the kinds of clay there are these days and some of their characteristics in my previous answer here:

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20091225104704AAIDebT



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