If you no longer want to spend money on expensive industrial polymer clay, which is sold in hand-made stores, you can prepare it yourself. For this, simple ingredients available to everyone are used. This material can be dried on the street or in the oven.
It is slightly different from the factory, but when using the correct production technology is not inferior to it in quality. Please note: this is not a classic polymer clay. How to make this product at home, without using plastic, which is used in factories, we will understand further.
Glue and Corn Starch
Using this recipe, you can make material that is almost no different from industrial. Its only feature is that it dries out more. The weight of finished products is reduced by 30 percent compared to the original, but this does not affect their shape. Do not forget about this property when you plan to work on future crafts. Make it a little larger than it really should be. Then your creation will be reduced to the necessary parameters.
How to make polymer clay? To do this, mix three quarters cups of glue and one cup of corn starch. Use a non-stick pan as a container . Place it on a table or stove, but do not turn on the fire. Bring the components to a uniform state.
For this method, wood glue is best suited. Although a simple child is also suitable. If you choose the second option, the clay will turn out to be more liquid than in the first case.
Now pour two large tablespoons of mineral oil and one lemon juice into the mixture. Mix all the ingredients carefully. Alternatively, you can use any motor or baby oil, but it should not be jelly-like.
Color and knead
How to make polymer clay colored? Just add acrylics or food colors to the finished mass. But you need to do this carefully so as not to change the structure of the material. If you are going to make a multi-colored craft, cover each of its parts with paint after finishing modeling.
Now heat the mixture over low heat. In this case, it is necessary to stir it constantly. When it becomes similar in consistency to mashed potatoes, the pan must be removed from the stove and put on any cold and even surface.
Add some more mineral oil to the clay. It will lubricate your hands so that the material does not stick to them during operation. Mash the clay on the table, as if kneading the dough. It should be as hot as possible so that your hands can withstand this temperature. You can wear rubber gloves to protect your skin .
Further actions
Knead the material until it is perfectly smooth. Clay should look like pizza dough. Roll it into a sphere and put it in an airtight container, before that, removing air from it as much as possible. If the mass has not cooled completely yet, place it in a bag with a small gap. And after the temperature finally drops, put the workpiece in the refrigerator.
To make polymer clay jewelry, grease your hands with cream. So the material will not stick to the skin. Roll out the mass and sculpt from it any details that you need. Then combine them with each other and wait at least a day for the clay to dry completely.
After that, you can start working with color. You will need to paint with paint even those places that you want to make white. Otherwise, they will be transparent.
Glue and glycerin
If you want your products not to crack, you will need polymer clay prepared from glue and glycerin. How to make such material at home? He will need a lot of glue. This component will make the mass sticky, but very durable. And thanks to him, cracks will not appear on finished products. Glycerin, on the other hand, enhances the action of this component and minimizes the number of possible splits.
Products from such clay dry in just half an hour. But before we start working with them, we will have to wait a night (or rather a week) so that the finished dough is not too sticky.
Separate stages of work
Before you start creating clay, it is better to dress in old things that you will not mind mopping up. How to make polymer clay at home? To do this, mix in a non-stick pan half a glass of water and 2 cups of glue. Boil the mass for a couple of minutes, while stirring constantly. As in the previous recipe, wood glue is ideal, as it is stronger. But children's PVA can also be used.
Now, in a separate bowl, combine corn starch with a quarter cup of water and pour them into the main pot. Mix all components thoroughly. After the finished mass becomes homogeneous, cover it with a lid and wait until it cools completely.
If you intend to use food coloring, add one or two drops of the selected color to the mixture. In order to achieve a more saturated color, increase this number. You can also cover the product with paint after it dries.
Final actions
Sprinkle the surface on which you plan to knead clay with corn starch. Then put the finished mass on it and carefully knead. In the process, add more starch to the mixture so that the dough finally ceases to be sticky.
Stop kneading when the material becomes pliable and its surface is flat. At this stage of the work, the gluten contained in starch makes the mass plastic and soft. Now put the mixture in an airtight container and refrigerate for a while.
Latin American Recipe
How to make polymer clay? For its preparation, there are many recipes. One of them came to us from Latin America. Locals call this mixture Francese paste. From it you can sculpt a variety of crafts.
According to the classic recipe, 10 percent formaldehyde or formalin must be used. But these substances are harmful and toxic, because we will replace them with ordinary white vinegar.
We need strong and flexible polymer clay. How to make such material at home, we will understand further. To get started, take a glass of corn starch and half as much water. Place the ingredients in a teflon pan and heat over low heat to such an extent that the powder melts. When it spreads over water, add glue to the container.
Additional components
Then add one and a half large spoons of glycerin to the contents of the pan, the same amount of cold cream with lanolin and white vinegar. Heat the mixture on the same fire as before, until it turns into a homogeneous mass lagging behind the walls of the pan.
Try not to overheat the components so that they do not harden too much. This is the main answer to the question of how to make polymer clay soft. You can also dilute the finished mixture with water, but you need to do this carefully and measuredly so as not to overdo it.
Do not be alarmed by the complex names of the ingredients! In fact, they are very easy to get. Glycerin is widely used for baking and is sold at grocery stores, and cold cream with lanolin can be purchased at the cosmetic departments.
Modeling Features
Before sculpting, apply lotion or cream to your hands and work on kneading clay. Then cover the material with a damp cloth and allow the mass to cool. When you see that the dough has become homogeneous, you can start working on the shape of future products.
At the end of the work, finished crafts must dry for at least three days in the open air. When all the parts have hardened, you can start painting them. Store unused mass in a sealed plastic bag in a dark and cool place.
Very strong clay
Some crafts require the use of particularly durable materials. So, for example, to make a doll from polymer clay, it is best to use the following method of preparing the material. It will require additional components. They will give the product such a density that it will not break when dropped.
Pour into a pan a glass of ordinary glue, half a tablespoon of stearic acid, one and a half tablespoons of glycerin and petroleum jelly, half a tablespoon of citric acid. Heat the mixture over very low heat, mixing it thoroughly.
We bring the material to working condition
Start pouring corn starch into the bowl. In total, you need to use half a glass of powder, which you will add to the main composition in small parts. To prevent lumps, do not forget to stir the contents of the pan all the time until it begins to lag behind its walls.
Over time, the clay will harden, and mixing it will become more difficult. But you can’t stop until you pull the mass out of the pan. Then knead it for 20 minutes by putting it on baking paper.
The mixture will be hot, sticky and lumpy. After you knead it, it will become smooth and even. Then leave it on the table until it cools down. Wrap the finished clay in a plastic bag, releasing all the air from it. From the resulting material it will be possible to make a variety of jewelry and accessories. Use acrylic paints to colorize parts.
Liquid plastic
How to make liquid polymer clay? There is nothing complicated in its preparation, and the finished material can be used to create a wide variety of textures, translate images, and also with the aim of making the effects of dew, enamel, stained glass and not only from the culinary cream. In addition, it serves as an excellent means for gluing parts. In order to create this material, there are several ways.
- Using a special gel that is added to standard polymer clay. This component performs a softening function. For each craft, you need to separately select the proportions. In this case, it is necessary to be guided by an important rule: the smaller the gel, the thicker the plastic, and vice versa. This additional additive must be baked separately, since it will not be able to dry on its own. Keep it in the oven for a quarter or a third of an hour at a temperature of 130 degrees.
- Many masters manage to save money and make liquid clay with petroleum jelly or hand cream. These components give almost the same effect as the gel, but the product is thus less transparent.
- You can even try to dilute the clay with water. But this is not a very reliable method, because excess liquid affects the quality of the composition, and it loses its properties. So, for example, clay ceases to be strong.
Clay Products
From this material it is really possible to make a wide variety of crafts. They can consist of a single part, or of many small elements. There are various ways to make polymer clay flowers. For example, blind each petal and core individually, and then glue them together. In order to create a beautiful rose, cut a wavy line and twist it, as shown in the figure below. Attach the leaves to the bud and the flower is ready.
Making polymer clay earrings is also a snap. You are able to create the most unusual models. This can be, for example, food, such as cakes, pieces of cake, fruits, berries, ice cream, donuts, sweets or even sandwiches. Handmade jewelry in the shape of animals and cartoon characters is also popular. Even the most ordinary colored circles, squares, rhombuses, triangles will look very stylish and bright.
The principle of creating any earring is to mold the necessary figure from crushed clay, decorate it with details, cover it with paint and attach it to a hook, which can then be passed through a hole in the lobe.
For the manufacture of any product you will need polymer clay. How to make this beautiful and versatile material at home, you already know. Now with it you can make unique jewelry, key chains, figurines, fridge magnets and many other interesting gizmos. These crafts are not only colorful, but also durable. They will delight you and your loved ones for a long time, for whom they will become an unforgettable gift.