Modeling from cold porcelain is easier than working with salt dough and cheaper than making decor from polymer clay. Be sure to check out this technique on the Women's Hobbies website.
Needlewomen became acquainted with cold porcelain at the beginning of the last century. It was invented by craftsmen from Argentina who used a plastic mixture instead of clay to create small sculptures and figurines. But it soon became clear that the material is perfect for elegant jewelry, interior decor items, and artificial plants. Since then, modeling from cold porcelain has become more and more popular every day, gradually turning into an independent branch of decorative and applied art.
Due to the fact that cold porcelain is a cheap, environmentally friendly and easy-to-use product, almost everyone, young and old, can learn to create with it. This hobby can be safely included in our list. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to have an art education or be a born sculptor.
For kids, this entertaining activity has a special benefit: in addition to the fact that they can create interesting things on their own, modeling also greatly develops fine motor skills and creative thinking. Excellent!
In order to learn how to create a variety of products from cold porcelain, from simple figures to naturalistic-looking flowers, you just need to be patient, high-quality modeling material and a minimal set of tools, which at first can even be replaced with suitable improvised means - a variety of knitting needles, sticks, knives , spoons or plasticine stacks.
By the way, the advantage of cold porcelain over the same plasticine is that after some time it completely hardens, so products made from it are more elegant, durable and resistant to mechanical damage. True, it takes several days for the final drying of crafts made from this material.
Many modern manufacturers of goods for “hanmade” and creativity have quickly navigated the consumer market, offering a wide selection of ready-made masses for modeling. But it is better for a novice master to use a homemade mixture. There are several good reasons for this:
The first composition of this unusual creative material, invented by the Argentines, included corn starch, glue, glycerin and vegetable oil. In principle, in our time the recipe has changed little, with the exception of small nuances that each master has his own.
Today, cold porcelain for modeling is usually prepared in two ways: by brewing and by mixing all the ingredients. For those who are encountering this process for the first time, it is better to do without cooking and use the recipe below.
Ingredients:
Preparation procedure:
All ingredients must be mixed in a suitable container. To begin with, it is better to dilute the glue with water, and then add it to the starch in small portions, stirring.
While kneading, add glycerin and cream to the mixture. You need to knead the resulting “dough” until all the ingredients turn into a homogeneous elastic mass. In this case, it is advisable to periodically lubricate your palms with a small amount of vegetable oil or cream so that the mixture does not stick to your hands so much and it is more comfortable to work.
If you need porcelain of a certain color for modeling, then during the mixing process you can add a couple of drops of liquid food coloring or a little oil paint to the mixture. But for painting finished products, almost any paint is suitable - from unnecessary cosmetic shadows to acrylic and gouache.
When choosing ingredients, keep in mind that the structure and color of the modeling mass depend on them: from potato starch it turns out denser and slightly grayish, and from corn starch it turns out airy, translucent, with a slightly yellowish tint. Cream and glycerin give cold porcelain a pleasant, smooth texture. They can be replaced with Vaseline, which makes the mass softer and more pliable to work with.
To make the sculpting process easier, there are a lot of tools that are worth investing in once you realize that you like the chosen activity and decide to take creativity more seriously. Among them, the most useful are various stacks, bubbles, molds, and cutters.
Molds– these are forms for creating three-dimensional parts and compositions, and cutters(cuttings) - molds for cutting out flat elements, similar to those used for making cookies. It must be said that many craftsmen eventually begin to make these devices themselves from scrap materials.
Gurgles are called sticks with balls of different sizes at the ends. They are used to smooth the surface of the product, creating recesses and bulges.
In the process of making flowers, you also cannot do without a plastic board and a rolling pin for rolling out the mass. A machine for rolling out spaghetti dough greatly facilitates and speeds up the work - it also rolls out cold porcelain evenly and thinly.
Modeling from cold porcelain is very easy to turn from an ordinary hobby into a fairly profitable business. Such decorative products are in very high demand on the handmade goods market and are gladly accepted for sale by art salons, souvenir shops, shops selling interior decor items, or salons specializing in holiday themed decorations. You can also sell your creations on special online platforms for craftsmen or create them to order.
Cold porcelain flowers are in particular demand among buyers. Beautiful compositions made by the hands of a skilled craftsman can sometimes be distinguished from real plants only by touch, so they are often bought to decorate expensive interiors in restaurants, salons or hotels.
So, go for it - and it is quite possible that your favorite hobby, in addition to an interesting pastime and the pleasure of creativity, will also bring you income. Read more about this in our other article.
To make it easier for you to master the secrets of sculpting, we have prepared step-by-step instructions with photos.
Cold porcelain is the cheapest, most pliable and accessible material for modeling. It is completely safe to work with it, and it is not at all necessary to have special skills and knowledge - even a small child can do such creativity. You don't need to look for something special in stores to create a unique decoration or other thing with your own hands. You can prepare cold porcelain at home.
In appearance, cold porcelain resembles plasticine or clay, but after complete drying it is an absolutely solid substance. During sculpting, you can use any accessories, jewelry, beads, small beads, buttons, branches or dried flowers, as well as fabrics of any structure. The surface of cold porcelain products can be varnished, painted or sprinkled with beads, sparkles, sand, etc.
In the first years of the 19th century, the first products made from this material appeared. According to dated records, it became known that cold porcelain was invented by the Argentines, but there is no exact information about its origin. There is much more information about the Russian master Pyotr Ivanov, who worked at the imperial porcelain factory and at the beginning of the 19th century made unique objects from a special class of porcelain. According to documents from the St. Petersburg Porcelain Factory, it was he who made the first decorative flowers from cold porcelain, which were intended to decorate special perfume bottles that were supplied to the imperial family.
There are earlier facts confirming the existence of this material. Chinese treatises on sculpture and art describe many varieties of cold porcelain stucco, but it is called somewhat differently. But still, its recipe is identical to the one used by Pyotr Ivanov.
This material makes incredibly beautiful products, but at the same time they require the right approach to use. Places where there is no direct sunlight and moisture are acceptable for them. Cold porcelain is the same polymer clay that can absorb moisture, become limp and lose its original color when exposed to sunlight.
In rooms that are decorated with items made of cold porcelain, it is necessary to maintain the optimal temperature regime for it. So, if it is less than 10º C, the structure will gradually collapse due to the crystallization of moisture particles contained in such porcelain. High temperatures are also destructive - it will simply dry out and crumble. Lacquer coatings will help extend the life of cold porcelain products. They will protect against moisture and maintain the color, shine and shape of the surface.
From this material you can create anything you want - from a variety of jewelry for women to cute accessories for the interior:
Many needlewomen decorate pots of indoor plants or create a complete composition with a cold porcelain flower.
Dishes decorated with such stucco molding will become a real highlight of the kitchen interior.
All kinds of frames, flowerpots, stands, lampshades, candlesticks made of cold porcelain will dilute the usual interior and give it a touch of individuality.
Hairpins, hoops, jewelry and other feminine attributes decorated with flowers made of cold porcelain look charming. 
Thematic compositions made from this material, figurines of animals, little houses, garlands of flowers and greenery will certainly become a unique interior decor.
Together with your baby, you can create characters from your favorite cartoons or fairy-tale characters that will decorate the children's room.
In addition, you can make an amazing gift for dear people.
Making polymer clay is not at all difficult. The easiest traditional recipe is corn or rice starch, PVA glue, the most common baby cream and glycerin. The proportions are as follows:
Mix the ingredients thoroughly and leave for 15-20 minutes until the mass reaches a consistency ideal for modeling. It is strictly forbidden to put the prepared mixture in the refrigerator or store it for more than 2 hours at room temperature. You need to sculpt at once, trying to use all the material.
Some people add citric acid to the mixture, which works on the principle of preservation, which extends the shelf life of products.
There are recipes using water. However, such compositions are short-lived and fragile. Under the influence of external irritants, water reacts with the other components of polymer clay, due to which the shape of the products may change, their strength may decrease, and an unpleasant odor may appear.
To give a certain color to a product, chalk and food coloring are often used. But even after finishing the work and completely drying the product (in a day), its surface can also be painted.
It is easier for beginning “sculptors” to make flowers from cold porcelain, for example, sakura.
Step 1. Leave part of the workpiece white, and paint part soft pink. From each we make small blocks (future petals). The white block should be slightly thicker than the tinted one. We connect the blanks along the length and cut them into small rectangles.
Step 2. Sculpt the petals. Make their bases pink and their edges white. We glue the petals together with PVA and use a toothpick or knitting needle to make a small hole in the middle, where we will then insert the stem.
Step 3. We attach the finished buds to a leaf cup with a green base and place them on a wire stem. Such a branch should look like a real sakura, perfectly repeating its structure.
Step 4. According to this scheme, we make several branches, leave them to dry completely, and then twist them into a single composition using wire.
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Such a creative material as “cold porcelain” is very popular among handicraft masters. Beautiful and very durable crafts are made from it. Today you can buy it in almost any specialized craft store or online, or you can save money and make the material for modeling yourself.
Making cold porcelain with your own hands is quite simple. There are many different recipes for preparing this modeling material, but the main difference in preparation is the presence or absence of heat treatment of the mixture.
Advice! For beginners, it is better to use recipes without cooking, as this process requires certain skills.
In this case, recipes where you just need to thoroughly mix all the ingredients are perfect.
For this recipe you will need:
Preparation:
Pour starch into a bowl. Then add Vaseline oil to it and mix everything well. After this, add a few drops of Vaseline to the mixture, and then soda. At the very end, carefully pour in the glue. Mix everything thoroughly.
To prepare you will need the following ingredients:
Preparation:
All of the above ingredients must be mixed thoroughly. After this, put the resulting mixture on low heat. Cook the mixture until a dense lump forms and the liquid has almost completely evaporated.
To prepare the material this way you will need the following ingredients:
Attention! Corn starch makes the mass more elastic and almost transparent, which is important for making beautiful and high-quality products.
Preparation:
First, mix all the ingredients in a deep container. Then put it on low heat and start cooking. The mass must be stirred constantly. When one large and fairly dense lump is formed, the mass must be removed from the heat, transferred to a table previously greased with baby oil, and after the mass has cooled a little, knead it thoroughly with your hands. If you need cold porcelain of different colors, you can add dyes of the color you need while kneading. You can use both food and synthetic coloring pigments.
Important! When staining with synthetic dyes, you should remember that only an adult without allergic contraindications can work with the resulting mass.
It is better not to give such a mass to a child, in order to avoid the occurrence of irritation, skin itching and various types of allergies.
To prepare cold porcelain this way you will need:
Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients and then put on low heat. Cook until a homogeneous dense mass is formed.
The basis for crafts is ready, now you can safely start making original and useful household items, jewelry, dolls and even paintings from cold porcelain.
You can learn another recipe for making cold porcelain without cooking from the video:
For beginners, an excellent option for cold porcelain crafts that you can make with your own hands are simple-shaped flowers (lilies of the valley, hibiscus, peony, roses), simple figurines of animals and birds, and costume jewelry with a small amount of decorative elements.
Master classes on making your own jewelry using cold porcelain are very popular.
Here is one of the options for making a simple flower bud from cold porcelain with your own hands. The entire sculpting process is presented in detail in the photo.
Animal lovers can try to sculpt a cute giraffe or a sad puppy. Below are step-by-step photos of the entire process of sculpting these crafts.
After acquiring a certain number of skills in sculpting from cold porcelain, you can begin to make more complex decorative elements and, therefore, more complex objects or decorations. The photo shows just a few ideas for creating jewelry using rosebuds made from cold porcelain with your own hands.
Evgenia Smirnova
To send light into the depths of the human heart - this is the purpose of the artist
Content
Creative activities involve working with various types of materials. When sculpting figures, for example, in addition to clay, you can use cold porcelain, which is much easier to deal with. This plastic composition is more delicate, which guarantees the preservation of a feeling of weightlessness in finished crafts. Flowers and small details that require careful design are often made from cold porcelain.
The main ingredients, without which it is difficult to imagine preparing this type of porcelain, have long been considered glycerin, corn starch, PVA glue and oil. Modern recipes are undergoing changes in composition. A homogeneous composition for modeling was invented at the beginning of the last century in distant Argentina. Initially it was created for the production of small figurines with many details. Art modeling from cold porcelain is popular among adults and children due to the extreme ease of working with it.
The convenience of soft, pliable mixtures for creativity lies in the ability to prepare them at home. You can make cold porcelain with your own hands without much effort or money. The step-by-step instructions vary, but mostly contain the same steps and ingredients. A recipe for cold porcelain at home may contain a step such as cooking, or it may do without it. There are methods of cooking even in the microwave, but they are more labor-intensive.
It will take time to learn how to sculpt beautiful figures, but even beginners who have never sculpted crafts before can easily prepare cold porcelain. The mass is prepared from the following components:
A more common cooking method looks like this:
To cook or not to cook? That is the question! Craftswomen who prepare cold porcelain with their own hands are divided into two categories: the first are for cooking, and the second are against it. There are practically no differences in consistency and properties. Cold porcelain without cooking is just as flexible and easy to make. Among the necessary ingredients are the following:
The algorithm is as follows:
Potato starch is a more familiar ingredient for culinary experts than its corn counterpart. It can be found in almost every home, so making porcelain from it may be easier in terms of availability. If you plan to create light elements, such as rose petals, it is better to avoid potato starch, since the peculiarity of the product is a grayish color. A simple classic method involves cooking on the stove. List of components:
The steps are as follows:
Cold porcelain made at home requires staining. To add color to the mass, food coloring, pigments and acrylic paints are used. The first two coloring substances are used when cooking porcelain, adding them to the composition along with the main components. In this case, you will need to prepare several balls of porcelain mass to give each one a different color. Acrylic paints are used when the product is dry and just needs to be painted. This option is a little more convenient, more practical and takes less time.
Cold porcelain is a material that is often mentioned in master classes on making flowers. You can mold them without using special tools, with just your hands, but the best result can be achieved with the help of molds. Apart from these, delicate flowers are made using plastic spoons. The plastic mass is laid and rolled out along the recess of the spoon, and then several of these elements are assembled into a flower, for example, a tulip. You can use different tools; this creative process is limited only by imagination.
Drying the finished craft is an important stage in all work with cold porcelain. There are cases when, when drying the finished product, the material cracks, leaving unsightly grooves. How to properly dry a craft? This is done at room temperature, at least for 24 hours. It is very important to turn the product over if it is lying on one side and not in a vertical position. To speed up the process, some needlewomen slightly heat the oven, and then, turning it off, place the craft there for a short time.
Recently, the regiment of needlewomen has arrived. A new type of hobby has appeared - modeling from so-called cold porcelain.
If you think that this hobby is only for sculptors and architects (as well as potters), you are deeply mistaken. Let's take a closer look at this current technology, and also find out whether it is possible to make this material for creativity with your own hands.
Read also:
This is a cheap, accessible, very pliable material, which, being absolutely safe, can be used for modeling during creative activities with young children.
It is not difficult to prepare it even at home. In appearance it looks like plasticine or clay; when dried, it becomes very hard. You can sculpt any type of jewelry from such porcelain, make small beads and beads, shells, buttons, twigs or flowers. The surface of the resulting products can be painted or sprinkled with fine material, or varnished.
IN composition of cold porcelain DIY products most often include: glycerin, oil, glue and starch. But before you start work, you need to know that the color of the resulting products depends on the recipe.
For example, what will be made from the potato version will turn out dense and grayish, and from the corn version it will be transparent, airy and slightly yellowish.
There are several options for making a cold product that are suitable for a beginner.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Often home craftsmen change the composition, wanting to improve the properties of the resulting product. So everyone can feel free to experiment on their own.
Ingredients: the same as in the previous recipe.
Preparation:
The product obtained in this way will be more uniform and smooth.
And here is the technology for making the product without cooking and using potato starch.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
It is best to change the color of the product itself using all kinds of paints or paints such as acrylic or oil, and to do this you need to add them to the prepared mixture and knead until an even distribution of color is obtained.
To paint the finished frozen product, you need to use a brush to apply a little dry food paint to the element to be painted and hold it over steam. As a result, the surface of the porcelain will absorb the dye and take on its color.
Drying time depends on the mass of the product, and it can be one day or several days, and the size of the sculpted objects will decrease. If flat figures are dried, they need to be turned over so that they do not become deformed. To speed up drying, you can use the oven.
Cold porcelain is a material from which you can make a lot of things. And you can decorate the resulting products using pieces of fabric, beads, seed beads, threads, etc.
