Hi all,
I would like to ask all fellow marionette builders what is the best recipe out there for creative paper clay. I do not have the budget or the chance to go buy some of that stuff every month, so I would like to learn on how to do my own. I know there are several recipe's out there, but I do not want to have to try them all to see which one works best. I would like to get to know what recipe's do you use personally? Thanks.

I use 2 types, one of them is call here in México "Cartonería" (paper and paste), the same technique to make piñatas but much more detail and quality. I like this one because the finished work is light and resistant.

The other one is not my favorite but all the people I know that make marionettes uses wood or mache paper, for the paper mache you need to make paper dough, could be toilet paper, and for the glue is one part of white glue and one part of water, some people uses una part of glue and 2 of water. I don´t like this one because is heavy and brittle.
 

I use 2 types, one of them is call here in México "Cartonería" (paper and paste), the same technique to make piñatas but much more detail and quality. I like this one because the finished work is light and resistant.
 

Where can I get that recipe that has more detail and quality? Thanks.

I think the process that  Dr Popet is talking about is just papermache' over a base. So that would be just paper and wheat past or glue.  The secret in getting and keeping detail is in the type of paper you use and the amount of sanding.  When I still did this method I sculpted out of Plasticine clay then covered. Let dry then cut about and dug out the clay.  You might be able to use a combination of techniques. Maybe cover a styro egg in a couple layers of rough papermache' then use a home recipe of paperclay to great rough details. Over that you could do some layers of papermache' using tissue paper to smooth things out. Then gesso sand gesso sand gesso sand.... That is really the secrete with papermache' even when I use the Creative PaperClay I always did some layers of Gesso with sanding in between.

Awesome, thanks Shawn! I will keep a copy of your message to refer to when I will get there. Thanks for offering such awesome info here. It's your giving that inspires me and everybody else here I am sure.

Thanks Shawn, I really suck at explanations in english, LOL

I had to check the "wheat past" meaning and you are right, and I prefer that over glue because the glue makes objects heavy and can crack, I prefer the wheat past technique.

I had to check the "wheat past" meaning and you are right, and I prefer that over glue because the glue makes objects heavy and can crack, I prefer the wheat past technique.

That is something I did not know, thank you for telling that info. I will definitively try to find some and work with it from now on.

Here you have some papier mache instructions

Papier Mache Rediscovered, By Ronnie Burkett http://home.eol.ca/~props/papier.html

Here you have some papier mache instructions

Papier Mache Rediscovered, By Ronnie Burkett http://home.eol.ca/~props/papier.html

Awesome, thanks Jorge for sharing this!