New Experiments in Cold Porcelain – New Recipe

I decided to try an additive in my Cold Porcelain recipe for two reasons – I wanted something as a filler that was less expensive than cornstarch and that would reduce warping and / or shrinkage of thin pieces.

Having used Calcium Carbonate in the form of Whiting – easily gotten in our local gardening shops here or through pottery suppliers in some countries – in papermaking as an acid neutralizer and to reduce sheet warping and give a certain smoothness to our papier mache pulp mix, I figured it would be a good candidate.

So first of all, I took some old Cold Porcelain I had knocking around and added in some whiting by kneading it in. It worked fine, I didn’t add much and the results were pretty much the same as the normal mix.

Yesterday, I decided to take it a bit further, so I added a larger amount into the mix and cooked it with. Here’s the recipe I used:

Recipe

3 cups Cornstarch

1 cup of Whiting

1 cup water

1 ½ cups white glue

1 Tablespoon Baby oil

Method

This I cooked in a pan on the stovetop. It took about 10 minutes on the lowest setting, stirring constantly and making sure to scrape from all parts of the pan.

Worth noting, I did not use a non-stick pan: You do not need a non-stick pan after all - as long as you are prepared that the cold porcelain will stick to your pan and you soak it off afterwards. Granted Non-stick is much more convenient! 

Testing & Observations 

My observations are that the mix was very sticky as I stirred it, but it came together fine and formed a ball that was not sticky to my fingers. It kneaded up fine with the normal amount of cornstarch on my hands.

I made two test pieces :

1. A thin disc with pressed texture ( I just used the edge of one of my molded polymer keyrings to make random texture)
   
2. A little humming bird using the Dolphin Tutorial method adapted.

I put them to dry in the window where they got sun – same as I do with all my things when I’m being impatient. 

• The thin pieced warped plenty!
  Note: flatness is MUCH easier to achieve if you dry slowly, turn often and if possible, restrain with some form of flat weighted object on top – it doesn’t have to be very heavy, in fact if it’s too heavy, your texture will be smooshed. Experiment with what works
• The shrinkage was NOT less than my normal recipe – I didn’t measure, but it actually looks like more shrinkage to me
• The strength is a little reduced – the piece broke fairly easily
• 
• The translucency was NOT reduced. This surprised me, as whiting is an opaque additive
• The colour was much more buff than the normal recipe
• 
• I should’ve sifted the whiting – the lumps do not easily knead away and can be seen in the translucent parts as well as in the surface.

Conclusion

I am fairly happy with Whiting (Calcium Carbonate) as an additive – I might try reducing the amount a bit, and I will sift it in future. I like the texture for working and am happy with the buff colour too – more bone-like.

What about  you? Have you a favourite Cold Porcelain recipe?

Have you added interesting things to your Cold Porcelain?

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Dolphin Tutorial

Hand Sculpting with your Fingers and a Toothpick

By Finola Prescott 

Skill Level: Beginner
 

Living in the Caribbean small islands means you often can't get quite what you want to work with, so I try to come up with ways to do things with alternate tools and materials. In this tutorial we'll make a clay dolphin (about 2"x1.5") using just our fingers and a toothpick.

This method works well for a any kind of clay – polymer, ceramic, air dry or cold porcelain; for this tutorial, we use cold porcelain which I like for various things; it's ability to dry very hard without needing any cooking, it takes colour easily mixed into the clay as well as painted on after and that it dries rock hard even when very thin. But it's not without some limitations; what I've found are first that it takes detail reluctantly – you often have to go back as it is drying and redefine details as it tends to bounce back from where you put it into a nice rounded pillow-like shape; that's all well and good if you want a pillow, if you want a knife edge, persist at persuading it and it will eventually agree to do what you want. Secondly, although I'm always fascinated at how hard this air-dries, it does need some kind of varnish applied if it is to be used as jewelry, keyrings or anything that will get damp and last that it doesn't marble colours like some other clays.

I think once you have tried this, you'll realize how much can be done with very little in the way of tools, and there's some inspiration for more finger and toothpick adventures at the end.

 

Here's the dolphin with some other finger and toothpick creations I've made.

The Mermaid, Fish in the Sea and the Little Fan Fish are polymer clay, 

the Flower necklace and Vessel are cold porcelain

All rights reserved. This tutorial is free for personal use, 

it may not be used or reproduced for any commercial purposes or altered without seeking and receiving prior permission from the author.

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