How to Make Glow in the Dark Clay
Make your own soft, squishy glow in the dark clay with just a few simple ingredients! This easy homemade clay recipe is fun to shape, dries beautifully, and glows magically when the lights go out.
Yield: 1 glow clay recipe
Cost: $2
Equipment
- Paper towel (or tea towel)
- Clay roller (or rolling pin)
Materials
Instructions
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Make homemade clay
- Add 1 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup cornstarch, and 3/4 cup water into a pan.
- Turn the burner on medium heat and stir the ingredients to combine.
- Continuously stir the liquid, scraping the bottom of the pan as you do so. Eventually you'll feel the mixture begin to thicken and it'll start sticking to your spoon.
- Keep stirring the clay mixture. It will bubble up a lot as it thickens more.
- Continue stirring until the clay mixture is thick like mashed potatoes and no longer liquid feeling (about 5 minutes).The clay will be quite hard to stir at this point. Remove from heat.
Step 3: Cool the clay
- Spoon the clay onto a plate or baking sheet, smoothing it down into a thinner layer.
- Cover with damp paper towel (or a tea towel) and allow to cool to room temperature before handling.This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the temperature of your room.
Step 4: Colour the clay (and make it glow in the dark!)
- Divide the cooled clay into equal sized balls. We decided to make 6 colours of clay, so we separated the clay into 6 balls about 78 grams each. You can weigh the clay or just eyeball it -- it's up to you.
- Flatten 1 ball of clay and set it on a baking tray or sheet of parchment paper. Then add 1/4 teaspoon glow in the dark pigment powder.The amount of pigment needed will depend on how much clay you're working with. 1/4 teaspoon worked well for our amount of clay.
- Fold the clay around the pigment powder, then squish it together.
- Continue kneading the clay until the colour is fully mixed in. Use the clay to pick up any stray pigment that's fallen on the tray.
- Repeat to make the other colours of clay.
- Now turn out the lights and see how the clay glows in the dark!
Step 5: Make things with your glow in the dark clay
- You can roll out the clay and then use cookie cutters to create fun shapes.
- You can also use your hands to sculpt things. Here we made a crescent moon shape, creating the curve by shaping it around a finger.
- Or, if you want to make marbled/tie dye clay, you can do that too. Start by making "snakes" of each of the colours.
- Push the clay snakes together into a log and then twist them around each other.
- Fold the ends of the log in and then roll out the clay.
- If you want to make a trinket dish, place a small bowl upside-down in the clay. Press down to make an impression and then use a craft knife to cut out the circle.
- Place plastic wrap in the bowl and set the circle of clay on top, creating a rounded dish.
- Once you've made your clay creations, set them on a parchment lined tray and cover them with a tea towel. This will slow the drying process, helping to prevent cracking.It will take at least 2 days for larger objects to dry. Flip them over after 24 hours to give the bottom a chance to dry as well.
- Your glow in the dark clay creations are complete!
- Now place them near a window or another light source and have fun seeing how they glow when the lights go out!
Notes
Looking for more fun clay crafts? Here's a few of our favourites:
How to Make a Clay Pie
Clay Leaf Bowl
DIY Polymer Clay Beads