How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (2024)

by Debbie Chapman

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Learning how to make clay is so easy! This homemade clay recipe uses simple ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already, and it’s so nice to work with!

How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (1)

How to Make Clay – Only 3 Ingredients!

Air dry clay is so easy and so inexpensive to make! Why spend tons of money on store bought clay, when learning how to make clay at home is so much cheaper and so much fun?!

We tested a few different clay recipes and this one was the BEST! And you only need 3 ingredients – water, cornstarch, and baking soda! You don’t need lotion and you don’t need glue.

This simple air dry clay recipe is super easy to work with. It’s smooth, doesn’t crumble, and it dries to a beautiful crisp white. It’s the perfect medium for both adult projects and kids crafts.

Check out our DIY Clay video tutorial:

*Note: Scroll down for the step-by-step photo tutorial.

Looking for more fun craft ideas? Here’s some of our favourites:

Dried Flower Ornaments

Air Dry Clay Mushrooms

How to Make a Clay Frog

DIY Clay Turtle

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Here’s what you’ll need:

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The full printable instructions are at the end of this post, but here’s a list of products on Amazon that are similar to the supplies we used:

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Baking Tips: How to make the clay dry faster?

This clay will harden (air dry) in about 3 to 5 days. Or you can speed up the drying process by baking it in the oven. Generally with air dry clay you want to let it dry slowly to prevent cracking.

To bake it in the oven, preheat an oven or toaster oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the items on a foil or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, flipping the objects over half way through. Turn off the oven and allow the items to cool to room temperature in the closed oven before taking them out.

What can I make out of this clay?

There are so many items you can sculpt out of air dry clay! You can make little pinch pots or plates, or you can create a jewelry holder.

Try using a rolling pin and cookie cutters to cut out clay ornaments. You can also sculpt little figurines, like a clay turtle or a clay frog, or even clay mushrooms.

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How long will this homemade clay last?

This clay will last up to 2 weeks. Wrap the unused portion in plastic wrap and store it in an air tight container (the plastic wrap is important if you don’t want it to dry out).

A batch of clay that we made over a week ago is still soft and workable. This homemade clay is even nicer to work with after it sits for a few days.

Can this clay be coloured?

Much like with homemade playdough, food colouring works well to colour this homemade clay. If you want one colour of clay, add the food colouring to the water before mixing it with the dry ingredients.

For several colours of clay, wait until the clay has cooled to room temperature. Separate it into balls (4 balls for 4 colours, for example) and knead the food colouring into the clay until the ball is evenly coloured. You can do this kneading in a baggie to keep the mess to a minimum.

We chose to leave our clay white and painted our sculptures with acrylic paint to give them colour.

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Print

How to Make Homemade Clay

This air dry clay recipe is the best! It's so easy to make and it dries to a beautiful, crisp white.

Materials:

Instructions:

Step 1: Cook the Clay

Step 2: Use the Clay

  • The texture of the clay should be very soft and moldable, but not sticky. If the clay sticks to surfaces, or your hands, dust the work area with cornstarch.

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (9)

  • You can roll out the clay or form it with your hands.

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (10)

  • Cookie cutters are a good tool for making shaped items, such as ornaments.

    Allow the clay to air dry for 3 to 5 days. Or bake it in the oven at 200F for 1 to 1.5 hours, flipping the piece half way through (see baking tips above).

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (11)

  • Your air dry clay recipe is complete!

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (12)

Helpful Tip:

If you're sculpting with the clay and it isn't sticking to itself well, wet the area with a bit of water - this will help it adhere.

To store unused clay, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it inside a ziploc bag or airtight container.

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Making clay and working with it are very tactile, sensory activities that the whole family can appreciate. Since this clay is taste safe, kids of all ages can enjoy working with it.

You’ll have hours of fun with this clay made from three simple ingredients. Use the clay to sculpt little animals, make keepsake ornaments, and more!

Here’s even more fun craft ideas:

Dried Flower Ornaments

Air Dry Clay Mushrooms

How to Make a Clay Frog

DIY Clay Turtle

Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!

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Where to buy:

You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:

Amazon |Barnes and Noble | Books- A- Million | Indiebound |Indigo |Amazon Canada

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About Debbie Chapman, the Author of this Post

I'm Debbie Chapman, founder of One Little Project and author of the book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids. I love creating fun and easy crafts and cooking up delicious recipes for my husband and 3 kids.

More by Debbie Chapman

Filed Under: Crafts for Adults, DIY, Just for Kids, Kids Crafts and Activities, Preschooler and Toddler Activities, Science Experiments, You Make It, They Use ItTagged With: baking soda, clay, cornstarch, crafts, crafts for kids, DIY, kids activities, Kids Crafts, preschooler activities, sensory activity, toddler activities

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Reader Interactions

Let us know what you think:

  1. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (21)Sophia says

    How long does it take to reach the right consistency? I’ve never made mashed potatoes

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (22)One Little Project says

      Hi Sophia! The exact amount of time will definitely vary based on the temperature of your stove. But I would say it takes about 5 minutes.

      Reply

  2. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (23)Malerie says

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (24)
    hi could this type of clay be good for a plate gift or other adultish gifts?

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (25)One Little Project says

      Hi Melanie! Do you mean a decorative plate or a food serving plate? For decorative, you could probably make a smaller plate or bowl with this clay. For an actual food serving plate, no. Air dry clay isn’t waterproof and anything you add to seal it probably still doesn’t make it food safe.

      For other gifts that adults might like, a little ring holder or pinch pot dish can be super cute. Or check out our clay crafts for a few other fun ideas, like dried flower ornaments or a DIY clay house candle holder.

      Reply

  3. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (26)Brittany says

    What should it feel like out of the oven? It still feels pretty soft. Other than that question we played with the other half that I didn’t bake and my daughter had a blast!

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (27)One Little Project says

      Hi Brittany! Ours clay objects had pretty much hardened after coming out of the oven. We still left them to sit for a bit to make sure the inside was definitely dry as well.

      Glad you had fun either way! 🙂

      Reply

  4. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (28)august says

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (29)
    hi!! this recipe was so fun and the clay was so soft and malleable and easy to work with! everything was going great until i sat my clay out to harden and dry, it started cracking:( is there a way to prevent this, or perhaps i made a mistake?? i followed the directions really closely!

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (30)One Little Project says

      Hi August! Unfortunately this homemade clay is more prone to cracking than store bought air dry clay. You can get the best result by drying your piece really slowly with a thin tea towel on top and flipping the clay piece occasionally.

      If your piece does get some small cracks you can fill them in with fresh clay.

      Reply

  5. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (31)august says

    How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (32)
    sorry if this is a duplicate comment it doesn’t say my comment uploaded😭 i really loved this recipe but my project started to crack when it was hardening! is there any way to prevent this, or maybe i made a mistake??

    Reply

  6. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (33)Debra says

    Do you have a recipe for making cinnamon ornaments

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (34)One Little Project says

      Hi Debra! Yes, we do have a recipe and instructions for cinnamon ornaments.

      Reply

  7. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (35)Stella says

    Could you add some white Elmer’s glue to help keep it from cracking?

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (36)One Little Project says

      Hi Stella! We did try a recipe with some glue added and it didn’t help with cracking and it made the clay not as nice to work with. Definitely feel free to experiment yourself, though!

      We found that slow drying under a tea towel and flipping once one side is dry was the best way to prevent cracks.

      Reply

  8. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (37)Vienne H says

    I’ve made this recipe once before, and I really like it. I did have to use extra cornstarch for the stickiness. I want make it again, but in a much smaller batch. Could you please post a smaller batch recipe? Also, would the baking time be the same for something as small as earrings, tiny doll food, and things like that?
    Thank you! I love your website 🙂

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (38)One Little Project says

      Hi Vienne! For a smaller batch you can definitely halve the recipe. (For the water, half of 3/4 cup is 3 oz, if that helps.) We’ve done this before with success.

      We haven’t tried making a really small batch, so you would have to experiment to see if something like a quarter batch would work.

      We also haven’t baked any of this clay in quite a while. We tend to air dry it slowly under a tea towel. But with the baking time it’s the thickness of the item that’s the most important. So anything that’s small is probably thinner than a clay trinket dish, for example. We definitely recommend lessening the baking time and checking on it regularly.

      Reply

      • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (39)Vienne H says

        How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (40)
        I did a batch using 1/3 cup baking soda, 1/4 water, and eyeballed 1/2 of 1/3 cup cornstarch, and I worked great! I made the most adorable doll food. Tip: use tiny shavings of chalk pastels and dust them onto your creations (before drying) for a realistic shading effect.

        Reply

        • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (41)One Little Project says

          Thanks so much for reporting back, Vienne! We really appreciate it.

          It’s good to know that smaller batches work well. And we definitely love the chalk pastel tip — we’ve been wanting to experiment with that on polymer clay, but hadn’t thought about using it with this homemade clay.

          Reply

  9. How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (42)Sally Forcey says

    can you add essential oils for air fresheners?

    Reply

    • How to Make Clay | The BEST Air Dry Clay Recipe (43)One Little Project says

      Yes, you can definitely make this clay into a diffuser by adding drops of essential oil once the clay is dry. I’m not sure about adding the oil while the clay is soft, but it’s also worth a try.

      Reply

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