To make this miniature cold porcelain SUCCULENT GARDEN you will need:

Cold porcelain clay , acrylic colors , watercolors , some modeling tools , natural wool , some leafs , and a box for placing succulent garden.

In this INSTUCTABLE I will give you a recipe for the best porcelain clay you can make at home and I will show you how to model succulents and pots.... all the way to the coloring and final touch.

Hope you can make your own MINI SUCCULENT GARDEN

Enjoy :)

Step 1: Cold Porcelain Clay Recipe

Cold porcelain clay recipe:

For the cold porcelain clay you need:

Plastic bowl for mixing the clay
( 7 ounces ) 200 grams of cornstarch

(3,5 ounces ) 100 grams of white wood glue

and a table spoon of Vaseline .

optional - white acrylic paint - to get white opaque clay , without white color, dried clay is a bit transparent and not white.

Do not add water.

First mix the wood glue and the Vaseline , then add some cornstarch. Mix well , then add more cornstarch and stir with the spoon. Add all the cornstarch you have and kneed the paste with your hand , until the paste become silky and smooth. About 10 min. You will get the clay easy to stretch and mold , it should not be powdery and fall apart.

This "clay" is very easy to work with and you do not need to bake it . It dries in the air and it is very solid. Drying time is about day or two , and they you can color it , glaze it for the final touch.

You can make more clay by doubling the measuring , but if you want to keep it for later work , you must wrap it in to the plastic foil - NO AIR aloud - and put it in the fridge. It can last for a few weeks. The porcelain clay drys by EAR and you make sure that you dry what you want - not the whole ball of fresh clay :) During the work, also keep the clay covered with the plastic foil , use a small amount .

Step 2: Modeling Pots for the Succulents

Take a small amount of clay and form a ball with your hands, by rolling the paste between your hands.

Then you squeeze the ball to form a pot . Use a little piece of fabric to get a texture around the pot. Roll a bit and it is done. Do not press to much. You should have two flat surfaces bottom and the top. Remember to keep the rest of the clay protected.
I made 8 pots + 2 later, but you can make as many as you want :)

Step 3: Modeling the Succulents

For this phase you will need some glue to attach the succulent to the pot . You mix some wood glue with the small amount of the cold porcelain paste ,it should not be too liquid. It will dry and fix well all the parts together.

You spread some glue paste on the pot and start modeling the leafs.

Follow the pictures :) Use the plastic knife or any small kitchen knife . Model leaf by leaf and glue them around the pot in three layers . Finally attach two smaller leafs in the middle at the top. Be careful and work gently , because it is easy to deform the paste.

Step 4: Modeling the Succulent

Take a small amount of porcelain clay and make with your fingers a round top then cut it. Make several of them. Coat the bottom of the leafs with some glue paste ( just a touch) and get them together. Then cut the bottom of the "bouquet" and glue it to the pot . Wipe out the extra glue of the surface.

Step 5: Modeling the Succulent

Make a ball by rolling between hands . Then take a plastic knife and make three line marks around the ball. Do not press too much. If you make a mistake , just roll the ball again between your hands and make marks again.

With your fingers gently squeeze and make the edges like in the picture . Make a litle flower for the top of the succulent with the mold. If you do not have a mold like this , just make a small ball and press it to the top of the cactus and press with the knife a few holes to make a flower .
Carefully attach the succulent to the pot.

Step 6: Modeling the Succulent

Make a small ball by rolling the small amount of clay between your hands. This time make just three line marks along the ball with the knife. Make sharp edges with your fingers by squeezing the clay. Be gentle. Attach the succulent to the pot with the glue paste.

Step 7: Modeling the Succulent

Make a few pieces half rounded , cut them and glue them together with the glue paste . Cut the bottom and fix the bouquet to the pot with the glue paste.

Step 8: Modeling the Succulent

Make a round cylinder with your fingers , like on the pictures then use the ball tool and press in to the "worm" to make a hole at the top of the cylinder and cut it with the knife. Be very careful with this parts because it is easy to deform, but you can always roll again :) Make a few of the leaf -flowers and glue them together to make a bouquet. Cut the bottom and glue it on the pot , use the ball tool to fix a bit more and to fix if something is deformed. Ad some glue around the connection to make sure it is fixed.

Step 9: Modeling the Succulent

Make a ball by rolling a small amount of clay between your hands. Then press it to some flat surface like on the pictures. Cut the bottom and roll the small part in to a smaller circle - to attach it on the top of the cactus . Make small holes with the sharp tool . Glue the succulent to the pot and then glue the smaller part to the top of the succulent. Be sure that you do not make it too thin so it could not stand straight.

Step 10: Modeling the Succulents

This is the same succulent as one before , but it has three balls . Roll the balls and mark them with the knife.. If you make a mistake , just roll it again. This can lean aside , but you take care of it by using some object to lean the succulent against it - and to stand straight. Glue the balls on the top of previous . I made two of this kind - with two and with three balls in different colors.
The last green one was made with food stamps. Food stamps can be found online to purchase. I made three layers of petals and glue them on the top of previous one. Finished with three separate petals on the top.

I made this two green succulents a few days later and edited this step to fit them in :) So they are missing in the next steps, but the procedure were the same :) Modeling, drying ,coloring and decoration.

Step 11: Ready for Drying

When you make all the succulents LET THEM DRY IN THE AIR. This clay does not need to be baked.
Drying period is about a day or two . You can see for yourself if it is solid dry. You can color them the day after. Do not color them if they are not dry , it could fall apart .

Step 12: Coloring the Wool

Pick the colors you want to use. You need to color the succulents and a small string of wool for each succulent pot.
You can use acrylic and watercolor painting for coloring . GET DIRTY !!! :) :) :) Make sure that you protect yourself and things you do not want to color. Wet the wool first and mix with color. Then hang the strings outside to dry .

Step 13: Coloring the Succulents

Dry cold porcelain is ready to be colored. Dry cold porcelain has a
bit yellowish color , and I paint them in white acrylic paint first to get more clear and radiant color later. In this pictures I posted some of my previous succulents but they are not in the RAINBOW fashion :)

Step 14: Decoration

For the final decoration you will need something to put your succulent garden in.
I have used some present box made of two parts and filled them with some rolled wool to make fill the space first. I also used some forest lichen for decoration and for more natural look . This is pretty crunchy and you can wet it first and then it is easy to place it and to separate it. You can use a kitchen plate or something else flat and small for the foundation of the succulent garden.