Are there any books on technical details for Cold Porcelain?

[Joyce Dunsire Jones]

I have bought a couple of books on Air Dry Clays, but as yet have found nothing on those little tips that are so valuable to the beginner. I'm just starting making flowers and am using a lot of cake decorating tools and cutters to help me. In the air dry clay books it refers to using chalks, acrylics etc to paint in detail but there is never a guide to actually showing how best to go about it, i.e. do you seal the petals first. I ask this because I find I don't have the same control painting directly onto the petals as I did in my folk art projects. Also there are never any real directions on assembling the whole thing together as you would have in say a jewellery project. You are given the basics and it is presumed that you would know how to put the whole thing together. When you want your petals to be realistically thin, do you make your petals let them dry, paint detail on and then somehow put them all together? Lots of questions I know but I don't think I'm alone in this. I have the book Clay Art for All Seasons, which seems to be the bible of Air Dry Flowers but this only goes so far and assumes that you know all the little tricks already. I do hope someone can help me as I'm loving the Air dry clays and love best of all the home made Cold Porcelain, Joyce

[Fehmida Sheikh]

I had the same problem.The old saying PRACTICE MAKES IT PERFECT apply s here.

[Carmen Tyrer]

agree with you!!! my first rose was a disaster!! and now i feel good about them!! just practice and be patient and do not jump steps and do not try to get the paste to do things it cannot do.

[Carmen Tyrer]

Hi Joyce: I bought through Amazon.com a magazine on Cold porcelain by Alan dunn and Tombi Peck.
It shows several flowers and some guide on how to make them.
But i think the best way is to try and find yourself the tricks.It may take longer but you will be able to expand your technique more so.Do not be afraid to loose a bit of material and try different things as they come to mind.
There are many mags you can get but most are in Spanish,it seems that there is a magazine that is published in England by Cellcraft,check their website.
good luck!!

[Carmen Tyrer]

Hi Joyce:
I don't know if you got any answers to your questions but will try to explain a bit.
It depends on the flower you are making if you can assemble and then paint,but some flowers have a lot of detail and would be easier to paint and then assemble.if you want to do it this way you may have to leave your petals for a couple of hours so they firm up a bit and then paint them,,when they are all ready painted them assemble ,but i would recomend not to leave the petals to dry too much as they may crack when you want to give some movement.
I know you can get them soft if you pass them through the kettle steam,but i find that makes them a bit glossy and will spoil the normal matt that flowers have ,so would go the other way.
have a cake plate with a clear glass top and put them inside while working the others to keep them ok.if they are getting too dry put a wet tissue somewhere inside the glass to keep up the air moisture. until you are ready to put all together.Hope this helps.regards Carmen