Clay DIY & Sharing Your Creations

I first learned that you could actually make clay at home from Grandma Cola.
Grandma Cola’s story — Enzou once wrote an article...

But I was constantly busy with life and never got around to trying it. Yet I didn’t want my child to miss out on the fun of playing with clay, so as a compromise, I bought some Play-Doh first. At that moment, the seed of an idea was planted in my heart.

In search of the materials needed to make clay, I looked up bakeries in the Zhonghe-Yonghe area online. Unfortunately, Taipei’s frequent overcast and rainy weather is an undeniable reality, and whenever I felt motivated, the weather just wouldn’t cooperate. As a result, this clay DIY project was postponed until now.

So, how exactly do you make clay at home?

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

1 cup of flour

2/3 cup of salt

2 cups of hot water

Usage instructions referenced from
&http://tw.knowledge.yahoo.com/question/question?qid=1105071406773

Since Enzou rarely bakes Western pastries, I went online specifically to find cream of tartar and food coloring this time. In the end, I found them at ‘Ai Jia Food Materials Store’ near Sihuan No. 4 Park in Zhonghe (‘Ai Jia’ means ‘love to eat’ in Taiwanese).

Cream of tartar 100g (small pack)……50 NTD

Food coloring (pink) 28g……75 NTD

This packaging size is enough for countless DIY sessions, right?

'='='= Ai Jia Food Co., Ltd. '='='=
Address: No. 14, Lane 118, Yian Road, Zhonghe District, New Taipei City
Phone: (02)8660-8895
Services: Baking materials for Western and Chinese pastries, modeling tools and machines, Thai spices, Western ingredients, sauces

Friends living in other counties or cities can visit this website to search for food material suppliers in their area.
&http://www.ytower.com.tw/sundry/sundry.asp?zone

I couldn’t wait to start “mixing and kneading”...

First, prepare good quality flour, flour, starch, salt, hot water, and oil, then pour them all into a mixing bowl and start stirring.

Then pour in the hot water and stir quickly.

Remember to adjust the amount of stirring according to different consistencies.

After stirring, the dough won’t stick to your hands.

The kneading time: start from when the hot water is poured in, about 10 minutes. Moms, just suffer through five minutes of arm fatigue and you can look forward to the results soon after.

Once it’s mixed, you can take it out and play with your kids.

One pot of mixture can be kneaded into four large balls and one small ball. Giving the child one ball a day is enough to keep them entertained for hours.

The texture right after making it is indeed quite similar to store-bought Play-Doh. However, the next day, my husband noted that the clay seemed a bit too sticky, causing it to easily cling to the table and furniture during molding.

Perhaps next time you can definitely use low-gluten flour or adjust the gluten content, or even extend the cooking time by 1-2 minutes to allow as much moisture as possible in the flour to evaporate. Other than that, there are no other drawbacks.

It smells like the genuine aroma of natural flour, I promise—no preservatives or fragrances have been added at all (commercial clay tends to have a stronger smell), so moms can feel much more at ease when their kids are playing with it~

Ever since the store-bought clay for Christmas gifts ran out, mom hadn’t bought any commercial clay for quite a while. On the holiday afternoon when the homemade clay was finished, Annie opened her sleepy eyes and was immediately captivated by the dreamy scene before her. She scrambled onto the chair and knelt down, ready to start playing with the clay.

%The texture is just as soft and smooth as store-bought clay, and the color is also very vibrant. The homemade clay we made looks really authentic.

‘This is so fun, of course I want to join in too!’
‘Look how nimble my fingers are—I’ll roll a rice ball for mommy.’

%Also used.

%Also used. Made another one.

If you want to be more meticulous, you can prepare an airtight container for long-term storage. This time, because the amount made wasn’t large, this step of sealing for storage was skipped.

Store at room temperature. If you notice an oily or rancid smell, it’s recommended to make a fresh batch of clay. After all, this is natural clay with not a single drop of preservative added, and it can easily develop mold in the dough when exposed to humid weather. For the health of your children, parents must not be careless!