FAQ . Cold Porcelain Clay

Q. What is Cold Porcelain?
A. Cold Porcelain is a soft and clean air hardening clay that can be formed into any shape with exceptional details.

Q. Who can use Cold Porcelain Clay?
A. Cold Porcelain is great for artists, crafters and children.

Q. How do the sculpted pieces dry?
A. The Cold Porcelain pieces dry from the outside in. It dries with natural air and does NOT need to be baked to cure. The pieces dry hard and NOT sponglike.

Q. What can I make with Cold Porcelain?
A. Cold Porcelain is ideal for modeling pieces such as flowers, figurines and sculptures. It can also be used to decorate store bought items or combined with other craft projects.

Q. What designs can I make to the Cold Porcelain clay?
A. The designs you can make are only limited by your imagination. Cold Porcelain can be stamped with stamps, shaped with modelling tools, molded with molds, rolled with rollers or pasta machine, cut using cookie cutters and of course free hand sculpted.

Q. What can I use to color the clay and How to color it?
A. It's original color is translucent and you can add color using acrylics or oil paints. The clay can be colored before modeling by knead the color into the clay or you can paint the finished pieces once they are dried, depending on the effect desired.

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Q. Is cold porcelain really soft and pliable to use or does it take some working with?
A. The cold porcelain clay to work is soft and pliable. It is up to you if you want to knead the entire batch before making something. Simply kneading the clay as you work is fine and also by doing this, it eliminates cracks or lines, making the final piece nice and smooth.

Q. Well, what do you mean knead the cold porcelain clay?
A. Knead means to work the clay in your hands. I prefer to "work the clay in your fingers" … like a piece of chewed gum...YES...chewed gum. Kneading is NOT flattening the clay on your palms, it is working the clay in your fingers (no need to work at it for long) until you feel it a bit elastic, then proceed to make a ball shape, then whatever shape you need.

Q. I've worked with air-harden clays before, and I found that they would start to harden while I was working. Do you ever find this to be a problem?
A. Air dry clay will dry when exposed to the air. How fast...depends on the weather. Different places, humidity and skill (or rather how fast you make things) will make the clay dry faster or not. You can always add a little bit of water to your fingertips to keep the clay from drying. Be sure to knead the clay nicely, it should stay good and shouldn't dry hard in your hands while you work. Also remember to keep the clay not being used inside a bag.

Q. How long does the clay take to dry?
A. Now, for a finished piece, depends on the thickness and size of the finished piece.  Remember the cold porcelain dries from the outside in, so no rushing and waiting is a must. Bigger pieces are done in parts and some things will need to be done and let sit to dry some, before continuing the sculpture.

Q. How strong is it once it is totally dried?
A. Hard. Make something solid out of clay and you can crack someone's head open with it. But again, same as with any fragile item - Handle with Care.

Q. Can I make some pendants out of cold porcelain?
A. Yes.  I have made some in the past and they are fine.  Just seal them well once done to protect from water or sweat from the wearer. Like with any clay jewelry, it is recommended to care for the items like they care for their pearls…you know…don't throw them in the wash

Q. So what exactly do I seal cold porcelain with?
A. You can seal it with any Clear Acrylic Sealer spray lacquer or Sculpey sealers which you dip into. Krylon (brand) has many different sealers from glossy, satin to matte.

More Q&A to be added soon.
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HELPFUL TIPS/TRICKS
-Thickness: it can be any thickness, though the thicker a piece, the longer it takes to dry.
-Volume: Volume on a big piece is done by using a styrofoam piece as a base / armature. You cover the styofoam with a good layer of clay. The bigger the styrofoam piece, the more clay you need for coverage.