A friend of mine found an old book at a garage sale that had a recipe in it for homemade Silly Putty. The ingredients are deceptively simple (just equal amounts of white glue and liquid starch, with a bit of food coloring to jazz it up), but the reality is a little more tricky. After a couple of botched experiments I came to realize that not all white glue is equal and not all liquid starch is suitable either. The ones I found to work were Elmer’s Glue-All multipurpose glue (not Elmer’s school glue) and a concentrated liquid starch called Sta-Flo (the first brand I tried, Niagara, didn’t react at all). That being said, the materials list is relatively simple!