Make Your Own Robin Eggs With Baking Soda Clay

I have been trying to find the "right" size eggs for the nests I am making but they were nowhere to be found. Then I found an awesome idea on a blog called Dreaming in Color. Go to this blog by clicking

HERE.

Deneen made some eggs out of clay she bought from Michael's. She shows on her blog how she made the eggs from clay, and how she painted them,  so I will let you go there to see what she did. 

I am impatient and did not feel like going to the store to buy clay so I made my own. I found an awesome recipe years ago somewhere on the world wide web for baking soda clay. I have had a lot of fun making stuff with this. Let me show you how to make it....

THE RECIPE:

1 cup baking soda

1/2 cup corn starch

3/4 cup water

Cook mixture on low heat, stirring occasionally until it resembles mashed potatoes.

The first time I tried this recipe - it flopped. I got impatient at how long it seemed to take to cook, turned up the heat, and the mashed potato consistency quickly disappeared into a big hunk of powdery mess. I did become a professional at making this dough - BUT then I didn't make it for a while and I forgot about the KEY part at the end - this recipe cannot be overcooked. The mashed potato consistency is more like an instant mashed potato consistency - not like how I make my mashed potatoes. I will walk you through it so you can have success the first time.

Add dry ingredients to a pot.

Add the water. Once mixed in it looks like milk. *Just a note* I cut the recipe in half for the eggs I made. I was able to make more than enough eggs (24 little ones and two BIG ones plus a bit of dough to test if it is good to shape things with the next day). I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to make so yeah, I cut the recipe in half.

Okay - back to the clay making....

The mixture is supposed to be cooked on low, but I kicked it up to medium low because it is a little painful sitting at the stove for a long time. It took about ten minutes for the mixture to start bubbling - once it starts bubbling it doesn't take long to get to this stage...

Once it starts coming together take it off the heat. There is a fine line with this dough when it comes to being over cooked - but if cooked right - this clay is awesome! 

After the dough has cooled off a bit - take it out of the pot. The dough will be a bit wet feeling, but silky feeling too. Resist the urge to cook it more because it is a little wet.

Shape the dough into eggs - or whatever - and let air dry. I tried saving some left over dough in a sandwich bag - but it become too powdery - so use it right away. 

I painted my eggs after 24 hours. Drying time depends on how big the craft is so play it by ear.

So there you have it - make your own Robin eggs! 

Thanks for stopping by!