specifically Bake - Able clay recipe - please?

[pamelaw]

Does anyone have a good, tried and true personally, recipe for bakeable salt clay? I've googled and tried some and they all rise and distort in baking, so there goes the baby's hand prints! argh![}:)]

I need a good recipe for bake-able clay and another one for making plaster of paris. We want to use the newspaper strips in what I vaguely remember as being a flour/water mixture over an inflated balloon and again, there are many recipes out there and I just want one someone has actually used.

Thank you!

hugs,

Pamela

[pamelaw]

This sounds like the one we did as kids:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/how_to_paper_mache.htm

but I still need a bake-able clay, please!

[gillmings]

Pamela, I've never used one that DIDN'T puff up and warp, etc. I think that's the nature of the beast. The Sculpy clays that you buy are the only ones I know that you can bake and they turn out the way you put them in. Also, the Crayola one that air dries.

I've seen handprints done in regular Plaster of Paris (from the hardware store).

The papier mache like you use over balloons, I think, is just liquid starch, flour and water, but I don't know the amounts. I have a Kid Concoctions book that I will try to find and see if there's an actual recipe with ratios. I remember dipping newpaper strips and making mini-pinatas as a kid!

-Moyne

"She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain." -Louisa May Alcott

[pamelaw]

Thank you Moyne! I wonder if the paw print impressions we get from the vet when we've lost a beloved dog are plaster of paris? I'll call and ask since they didn't warp on us.

[gillmings]

I'll be they are. I would also think that the Crayola stuff would work really well for impressions. Have you seen it? It's kind of like a moldable foam. Less messy, too!

-Moyne

"She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain." -Louisa May Alcott

[gillmings]

Okay, here's the Papier-Mache paste recipe:
(From [u]The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions </u>by John E. Thomas & Danita Pagel)

1 cup cold water
1/4 cup flour
5 cups water

Mix flour and cold water in a small bowl until smooth. Heat 5 cups water in a a large saucepan over medium heat until water begins to boil. Add flour/water mixture to boiling water and continue to boil, constantly stirring for 3-5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow paste to cool. Dip strips of newspaper in paste and place them over some type of mold or form. Allow finished sculptures to dry overnight or until hard.
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There are several clay/dough recipes, but all of them air-dry; none are intended to be baked. Hope this helps!

-Moyne

"She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain." -Louisa May Alcott