Why does my cold porcelain clay crack when dried?

I’ve gotten the question “why does my cold porcelain clay crack when dried?” “What am I doing wrong?” And it has been asked quite a number of times. Well I’m going to point out a few reasons why your cold porcelain clay is cracking and what you can do about it.

If you’re interested in making cold porcelain clay, All you have to do is Google the recipe and give it a try. I mean it sounds pretty simple right? Well not so much. There are so many different cold porcelain clay recipes out there. There’s even a no cook recipe (that i haven’t tried) that calls for the same ingredients but the method is one that doesn’t require cooking the dough.

Crack is Wack!

So you’ve tried the recipe, cooked your clay and you’re ready to use it but when you use your clay you noticed that there are multiple cracks everywhere! All your efforts are gone down the drain. What am I doing wrong you ask. Well, first you need to understand the formula and the process. If the recipe you chose doesn’t call for some kind of oil such as mineral oil or olive oil then it’s something you should consider adding. I like to add a big table spoon or 2 of mineral oil to every batch of clay I’m mixing up. The oil really helps with giving your clay a very smooth and polished porcelain look and feel. In addition to oil we like to add our very own Stacie Laurell Crafts conditioning lotion for some added plasticity.

“It’s the mixing for me”

Another important factor you should consider when wanting to avoid cracks is mixing the batch of clay thoroughly. All the ingredients you’ve put into this batch must be mixed out properly. Try to avoid having any lumps or dry pockets in your clay batter. You can do this by mixing your clay batter until it’s perfectly smooth.

Water is the enemy

You can drink as much water as you can tolerate but make sure no water is in your batter. Water is your enemy. So before you start your mixture, make sure your bowls, spoons and any other items you are using to make your clay batter is 100 percent dry. If you see a layer of water settle on top of your clay batter simply take a paper towel and dab at it to remove the water. Try to avoid getting any water in your batter. Period.

Weight it right!

Do you have the right proportions for the clay mixture? For our clay we use 1 cup of glue to every cup of cornstarch. Measuring out the appropriate amount makes a difference and you can always add a half of cup of extra glue if you’ve measured out too much cornstarch or a little over the amount. It’s also good to remember not to over cook your clay as that can dry it out and create cracks in your finished product when dried.

Knead your dough!

Sometimes clay creators overlook this simple but necessary step. Kneading your clay. When your clay is done cooking it’s important to remember to knead your dough thoroughly and make sure all air bubbles and lumps and bumps are smooth out of the batch. Also, try and let your clay sit for at least 24 hrs before using it.

Salvage your dry clay

Starting over and over again with a new batch can get expensive. Especially if you’re wasting ingredients. Believe it or not your burnt dried clay can be saved. On rare occasions we may slightly burn out clay in the process. It’s pretty rare because we have got a pretty good formula and process going on but when it does happen we always condition our clay with Stacie Laurell clay conditioning lotion. It smoothes out the clay, adds back ample moisture and prevents cracking!

I do hope these tips were helpful and please come back again to learn more about crafts and cold porcelain clay!

THERE’S HOPE FOR US NIGHT OWLS AFTER ALL- YOU CAN RISE LATE AND STILL BE SUCCESSFUL!

Have you ever felt pressured to rise early before the sun? I know I have but i’ve never been a morning person. In fact when I’ve held several night shift positions at a job i couldn’t be happier. I LOVE working nights! and i never fell asleep on the job. I was just always a night owl. I even hated the night while growing up. I hated that everyone went to sleep and that it was dark and quiet for hrs. I’m not sure why i’m such a night owl but i do love to stay up at night. However, staying up late at night means not being able to get up early in the morning. I HATE early mornings and have been forcing myself lately to be more of a morning person. Lori Greiner from shark tank said in her book that she is up by 4:30 5;00 am. I’ve been trying to get up early like her because many believe that only people who are morning early birds “catches the worm” and are more successful. Here is an article that may help you think of the night owl a little differently. Maybe you don’t have to change your night time ways after all 🙂

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230436

Mistakes an Ingredient for Success?

Some of us like myself HATE making mistakes. I know for myself I can’t stand it. I beat myself up over and over again over it. Mistakes in business means loss of money and that can be both upsetting and discouraging. When I started Stacie Laurell Crafts I made lots of mistakes. In fact i’m still making them. A fellow entrepreneur once told me that mistakes are part of the process and that I should embrace it. I thought to myself..” oh shut up” mistakes means failure but i couldn’t have been more wrong. Some of THE MOST successful Entrepreneurs made huge mistakes in the beginning and it helped them sky rocket to their success. But if you don’t know how to deal with and learn from mistakes it can really hurt the outcome of your business. Check out this article on mistakes and how you can make them a powerful tool for success. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232417

IF Social Media Doesn’t Bring You Sales You’re Probably Doing It Wrong!

IF you social Media Doesn’t bring in sales you’re probably doing it wrong!

I LOVE the show Shark Tank! i watch it every time and sometimes I watch it again on demand just to see if i missed any
great marketing tips. I’ve noticed that when most of the contestants that has high sales are asked how did you get your name out there
most of them say social media! When i heard that I thought wow! you got thousands of dollars worth of sales through social media??

A few months ago i remember asking my sister who worked in marketing and also works for Pepsi “how do i market my business”
and all she said was social media. Well i thought that response was too vague and so simple. I said come on what else
should I do”? and she said again Social Media! Well after watching so many people say the same thing on shark tank i thought
maybe she was right all along. But if you ask people on forums or blogs “do they promote on social media? most of them
say well i promote on facebook and twitter and it doesn’t work for me. I’m starting to think that they are doing it wrong just
like i was doing it wrong a few months ago. So what are some people doing wrong when it comes to promoting on Social media?

Here are a few tips!

First make sure you have your own business page and do not use your personal page as your promotion page

Some people think it’s not necessary to have a business page but it is. If you want people to take you seriously then you
must look professional. Have a business page for your products. You can even link it to your personal page if you’d like to.

Second Don’t post endless listings of your items! no that is not marketing! what do you mean that’s not marketing you say?
well yeah it’s not. I once saw a lady on twitter post at least 20 to 30 links to her listings every hr on the hr. so much
so that he clogged my feed and all i saw was her listings all over my twitter. I had to delete her immediately and i
didn’t even look at any of what she had to sell because she was just annoying. She clearly had NO IDEA howto market her
business effectively and if i deleted her i’m sure so many others did the same.

If you want to promote your business you can post your listings every once in a while but also post interesting things like
articles and interesting news related to your business. You can also help promote others. like people or businesses that
are related to yours. Join groups! that’s how you properly market your business. And instead of just posting a link to your
store listing how bout you right interesting facts about your products! things that will interest others. you will notice
more people following you and liking your page. If you are unsure how to run a successful social media page look at other established
businesses to see how they organize their page and what kinds of things they post!

and thirdly, be consistent! do this everyday or every other day. don’t just post one week and then come back weeks later.
Keep your pages active so that the search engines will keep up on them!
Following these simple steps for social media promoting will help a great deal! Also don’t expect overnight success!
but if you keep at it you will see sale conversions. I have when i started using social media the right way! 🙂

Stacie Laurell Crafts

https://www.etsy.com/shop/STACIELAURELL?ref=si_shop

How To Relieve Stress in a Childish Way

Do you remember what it was like to be a kid again? I absolutely loved my childhood and often wish i could go back to it. Two of the things that i totally LOVED to do was swing on swings and color in my coloring book. Believe it or not the things you use to do as a child can still be done now as an adult and can really relieve stress as well as lower your blood pressure. Here is a great article on coloring! Give it a try. Find one of your kids coloring books and crayons or you can buy your own at your local dollar or craft store and get to coloring. You will be surprised how 20 mins of coloring can work wonders and help calm you. 

Coloring books are fun for all ages. These are the beginnings steps to becoming an artist, and it is fun recreation. However, if you want to learn to color a book effectively, follow these steps to make the best of your arty needs. Read More

Polymer Clay vs Cold Porcelain Clay

Polymer clay is a very popular oven baked clay. Almost every artisan uses polymer clay in their creation. I too use to use a lot of polymer clay when making jewelry. In fact I was always at Michael’s arts n crafts picking up polymer clay in a variety of colors. Although the polymer clay bars were going for 2.45 a piece, it began to add up and my pockets were getting large holes in them. I thought to myself I wish i can make my own darn clay. I hit up Google and found “cold porcelain clay”. This type of clay doesn’t require baking and air dries within 24 hrs. I’ve never heard of it before but wanted to give it a try. I found out that cold porcelain clay isn’t sold in the U.S in the masses and people who were selling it online were selling it at ridiculous prices.  So i decided to make it myself and it came out perfect on the first try! So I started make more and more of this great cold porcelain clay. Then I decided to sell it in my Store on Etsy and it has been a hit ever since.

Now that i’ve started making my own clay I realized that it’s ALL I USE. I’ve stopped using polymer clay. Not many people can master the art of making the clay even though it’s made with simple household ingredients. But i’m pretty certain that if many people knew about cp clay and made it themselves they would use it more than polymer clay. Here’s why i think Cold porcelain clay is better

• You can make very thin pieces with it
• The texture and softness is fabulous which makes it easier to mold sculpt and carve more effectively.
• No baking required
• Can make it in a variety of colors that isn’t always offered with polymer clay
• you can make it yourself therefore you can save lots of money
• it’s non toxic so you don’t have to worry about fumes releasing while baking.
• if your piece dries and happen to have a crack or flaw you can easily correct it where as with polymer clay, once it’s baked, that’s it!
• conditioning cold porcelain clay with your hands is less difficult than polymer clay
• you can make beads, jewelry, just about anything with cold porcelain clay.

If you would rather try cp clay than make it yourself you can buy some at my store for a reasonable price. visit stacielaurell.etsy.com

here are a few pieces i made with cold porcelain clay