If you're looking for a recipe to *make* polymer clay, it can't be made at home because it's a plastic (unless you're a chemist with a lab).
There are many air-dry clays that can be made at home though, as mentioned. The best of those would be bread clay, followed by salt dough clay, but there are others too.
Check out some of my previous answers about the various kinds of clay there are (plus links for bread clay and salt dough) here:
(If you want info about techniques for using *polymer* clay, or recipes for mixing colored polymer clays together to get new colors, or things like that, check out the Table of Contents page at my polymer clay site for a listing of all the category pages there, then click on the one you want from the alphabetical navigation bar to get lessons, info, examples, etc:
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Unfortunately polymer clay cannot be made at home. For an oven-bake home modeling material recipe, try googling "salt dough."
If you're looking for a recipe to *make* polymer clay, it can't be made at home because it's a plastic (unless you're a chemist with a lab).
There are many air-dry clays that can be made at home though, as mentioned. The best of those would be bread clay, followed by salt dough clay, but there are others too.
Check out some of my previous answers about the various kinds of clay there are (plus links for bread clay and salt dough) here:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201006... (ignore the 2nd paragraph)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201105...
and more recipes: http://www.kidactivities.net/post/Play-Dough-Recip...
(If you want info about techniques for using *polymer* clay, or recipes for mixing colored polymer clays together to get new colors, or things like that, check out the Table of Contents page at my polymer clay site for a listing of all the category pages there, then click on the one you want from the alphabetical navigation bar to get lessons, info, examples, etc:
http://glassattic.com/polymer/contents.htm )
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There is a bread dough clay that you can use that is air dry and makes a fairly smooth finish.
It is a different recipe from the actual kids salt dough clay that is flour, water and salt.
The better recipe is bread crumbled into small pieces (without the crust), white glue and a small amount of cold cream.
There is a more detailed recipe here: http://www.make-craft-projects.com/craft-recipes.h...
There is also a recipe for cold porcelain clay.