Homemade Clay: An Inconvenient Truth…

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alternatives, an inconvenient truth, art, artist, Cara Reynolds, clay, eco-friendly, elmer's glue, handmade, homemade, homemade clay, is Elmer's glue ecofriendly?, Maria Emilia Borja, Mensa, mineral oil, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, natural food dyes, polymer clay, turmeric

So you try to be conscious and it ends up you didn’t do much better than you originally thought you would.

I looked, and searched for home-made clay recipes all over the internet. I was looking for a clay that would be malleable yet durable enough to make beautiful things, cheap enough to produce and make over and over again, and a recipe that didn’t use nasty or toxic ingredients.

And I found one! It was perfect….or so I thought.

The ingredients?

-1 cup of Non-Toxic Elmer’s glue

-3/4 to 1 cup of Corn Starch

-2 tbsp of mineral oil  Olive Oil

-1 tbsp of lemon juice

Not so toxic, right?…. Well, I looked into what mineral oil really is, and essentially it is the “by-product of the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline and other petroleum-based products from crude-oil”. That same oil in the clear bottle and the pink cap that you put on a baby’s bum bum, that stuff (plus some fragrance), comes from an incredible unsustainable source. On top of that fun fact, the World Health Organization  “classifies untreated or mildly treated mineral oils as Group 1 carcinogens to humans.” (Source) Group 1 carcinogens = DEFINITELY CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS. What?!?!

So since I am being all aware and into this, I decided to replace mineral oil with OLIVE OIL!

Cool… That’s great. So I am happy I’ve done my research and I feel better about myself.
I go about following this recipe, which at first I was hating, because it did not come out like it said. After reading the comments from other people though, I cooked the dough longer and realized that the most crucial thing is to KNEAD the clay when it’s REALLY HOT. Then all the parts will blend.

ps. I also added turmeric to the recipe to give it some natural color.

But then something else happened…another question that should’ve been obvious to ask, but I did not. Where the heck does Elmer’s glue come from???

Oh here we go again….. Elmer’s glue is made of polyvinyl acetate which, you guessed it, comes from petrochemical sources. Come on world!!! Really? Which really makes me think about all the “non-toxic” things we buy, that are actually quite toxic to our environment, our bodies, and our world! Of course elmer’s glue is toxic if it’s source and main ingredient when extracted from the ground  pollutes and kills everything around it!

Agrrr… I’m not so happy about this at all. I want to be able to make my own clay/dough at home, with decent ingredients that won’t harm you and me.

I haven’t experimented again, but I will once I find the perfect ingredients.

In the mean time, I will try to use up all my “non-toxic” glue, and try some more natural glue recipes. And lesson learned. Check ALL ingredients and where they come from regardless of now “natural” and non-toxic they are.

-Mensa

 

Oh-Organic Marshmallow Fondant, Where art thou?

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art, artist, Cara Reynolds, fondant, handmade, healthy recipe, how to make fondant, Maria Emilia Borja, marshmallow fondant, Mensa, Mushpa, Mushpa Y Mensa, natural fondant, natural food coloring, natural food dyes, organic fondant, organic ingredients, recipe, unhealthy recipe

Feliz cumpleaños Micaca y Isabela!!!

This birthday cake is dedicated to my crazy cool sister who turned the double douces a week ago…An easy to make fondant added a little color to this delicious chocolate cake, and who doesn’t love fondant? You can really make anything you want with it because its almost like play-dough!

The fondant was ridiculously easy to make, and because of the hype with the marshmallow-fondant recipe, I got caught up in the moment and used ingredients that were not so wholesome for our health. So sorry hermana!

So the ingredients I used?

Marshmallows= High Fructose Corn Syrup and who knows what  bits and pieces of chicken parts…

Powdered Sugar= I didn’t use any organic or unbleached product…my bad.

Food Coloring= Need I say more?

So here’s the deal. I did a little research and Organic Marshmallow Fondant IS possible.

I found a couple of recipes, yet each of them always had something “off”. So i combined all my research and I think it will be as easy to make an organic fondant recipe without the extra hassle.

So here’s the recipe…

8 oz of mini VEGAN marshmallows (about 4 full cups). They do exist!

1 tbsp of water

1 pound bag of Wholesome Organic Icing Sugar…plus a little bit more for when things get sticky!

1 tbsp of Organic Honey

1 tbsp of lemon juice

Natural Food Coloring

Organic Butter

* For the Food Coloring there are MANY options. You can buy organic and natural good coloring like Maggie’s Naturals which are made of all natural plant based sources. Your local natural food store should carry some. If you want to experiment and make your own colors you can virtually achieve any of them with any product at the store. Red? Use some beets! Orange? Carrots! Yellow? Tumeric or saffron flowers. Green? You can use spinach or even buy a natural food supplement called liquid chlorophyll. Blues and Purples? Cabbage anyone? Its doable! You might just have to experiment with the recipe.

The HOW TO:

Add the water to the marshmallows. It usually calls for a minute in the microwave. Skip this step and the extra radiation and heat it the old school way. You could use a double boiler if you have one, but what worked for me was setting a glass bowl in a deep pan with water over med-high heat. The marshmallows will slowly melt, so you gotta work them and stir them until its a pretty smooth mixture.

Use a wooden spoon covered with butter. This will make the marshmallows stick less to everything and will make it easier to mix. Make sure all the clumps are gone until you have a pretty smooth marshmallow mixture, and add the honey and the lemon. The honey helps make it a bit more flexible so it does not crack and dry so fast, while the lemon reduces the intense sweetness it has.

Start adding the icing sugar bit by bit, and continue mixing it well into the marshmallow mix. Slowly it will start to clump up and it will become hard to keep going further with the spoon. Once you have gone through 3/4 of the sugar, you can transfer the mix to a clean surface and use your hands. Make sure you grease the surface with butter so it does not stick.

Knead and keep adding the powdered sugar until you have a smooth and malleable dough. If it’s too sticky add a bit of sugar, if it’s too dry then splash water into your hands and knead again. The butter is your friend, so if it starts sticking places, just add a little more butter.

I made some flowers and leaves. Pretty easy! For the leaves I just cut two different shapes and with a toothpick added the lines. For the flowers I used a long flat triangle and started to curl it up from the smallest end.

My second attempt at this recipie with natural and organic ingredients worked great! Now your give it a try!

 -Mensa