How to Make Cold Porcelain Flowers

Make your own Valentine's Day present. You will not only cut costs but you might be giving the best valentines day gift ever to your beloved one. Hand made valentines day gifts may mean more "than just present from the store" (as the song lyrics states).

Cold Porcelain flower making is perhaps among the most tedious flower making activity for craft lovers. Yet, even if it will take time to make a bouquet of cold porcelain flower, real craft enthusiasts can't resist making more because of the high quality output it yields. The downside is - it is breakable. If you dislike breakables, check my foam flower making lens. Foam can give you flowers that look almost real.

Photo shows a part of a wallflower décor made by my sister-in-law. At first, I thought that it was bought from a cozy home décor store because it looks like real porcelain. With all the fine details and the various flowers composing it, it's almost irresistible to have a closer look and touch and feel the smoothness of porcelain texture.

Unlike foam flowers, it took me more time to learn how to make cold porcelain flowers. The key is learning how to make the dough.

With cold porcelain dough, you can do flower making. You can even create real looking cold porcelain roses or any other flower you wish to make. You may want to assemble it to make a perfect wall décor just like what is shown in the photo here.

You may also make cartoon characters or any cute figure you wish to make. There is a very wide flexibility as long as you stretch your creativity.

We are all artists in our own way. We love creating things. In most cases though, we gain interest in a particular art, enthusiastically make or start making a project and our enthusiasm wanes. When this happens, all the time and effort that we invested in this particular art are gone to waste. There are also time when we create something and after a month or two, we end up ditching it.

When you deal with cold porcelain arts, project the things that you can keep for a lifetime. Surf the net and look for an inspiration. I do not mean here copying what is already there. Get ideas and create your own.

The cold porcelain flowers in a frame that you can see above was created by my sister in law. It is near a decade and a half now from the time she made it - it is still as fabulous as ever.

Cold Porcelain, the right proportions should be followed

To make the make the dough, you will need:

Glycerin

Cornstarch

White Glue

The proportion is 1:1:1 so it is really easy to remember. That is: one cup of corn starch; one cup of white glue and one tablespoon of glycerin.

Mix all ingredients and make sure that the cornstarch is fully dissolved.

In a non-stick pan, heat it in a slow fire, stirring constantly. If you had been cooking maja blanca (a snack menu made mainly of cornstarch, and coconut milk and sugar) you will think that you are cooking your next snack only that this one is more sticky and dry.

You know you're done heating when stirring becomes a bit hard like when you are mixing your cookie dough. Take the pan off the fire and scoop out the dough into a greased pan (I grease the pan with glycerin) and knead it while hot. When it is smooth like bread dough, put it in an airtight container so it will not form crust and eventually harden. I simply put it in a freezer plastic bag and close it with a knot. Most cold porcelain craftmasters recommend to put this bag in the refrigerator to prolong its shelf life. I prefer not to because I use my dough or clay (some calls it clay) in one sitting. I cook cold porcelain dough only when I know I have enough time to make several items.

When I cannot find glycerin in the stores (you'll find it in pharmacies or beauty stores), I actually substituted it with coconut oil. It worked but the output bears the smell of coconut oil. I got this idea after researching online that coconuts are rich in glycerin.

Shaping, Cutting, Coloring

You will need small and thin but sharp scissors for cutting. For shaping, you can experiment on making use of your hand dexterity in effecting different shapes. Find other sharp and narrow things in your home because those are useful as well. You can use a pointed pencil, a spoon, a fork, a rod to shape your dough. You will also need a rolling pin.

I have full sets of shaping and cutting tools but I am not sure if these tools are available in all craft stores. I have petal form cutters (in different shapes and sizes (for sunflower, magnolia, rose, etc). These cutters are like the tin cookie cutters. Aside from that, I have different leaf-patterns too. These are plastic molds that will copy the veins of a real plant leaf to give your project a "real" look. I found some items in ebay and Amazon, check my list below. For beginners, it is best to have the right tools. You will feel more satisfied with the results, rather than improvising tools you can find at home.

Cold porcelain clay is available for purchase online too. You may choose to buy it with the kit that contains some of the basic tools. It would be best to buy the multicolored clay if you do not have oil paint at home. Otherwise, I recommend that you better get the pure, not colored clay.

For coloring, it is best to use oil paint. I tried ordinary watercolor and the result is "matte" and not shiny. When coloring, mix the paint with a small portion of dough. Estimate what is just enough for what you need so you will not be wasting your dough.