Silly Putty is made primarily from silicone and color pigments. Silly Putty was discovered in 1943 by James Wright and introduced to the public in 1950 by Peter Hodgson. Crayola acquired the exclusive manufacturing rights to Silly Putty in 1977. The formulas are considered proprietary.

Silly Putty® was discovered in 1943 by James Wright who mixed boric acid and silicone oil together. It was introduced to the public in 1950 by Peter Hodgson. Crayola® acquired the exclusive manufacturing rights to Silly Putty in 1977. Although the exact formulas Crayola uses to make Silly Putty are proprietary, we can share it is made primarily from silicone and color pigments.

Click here to learn more about the birth of Silly Putty! This video works best in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

SILLY PUTTY is made primarily from silicone and color pigments. Silicone is an oil-based product and by nature will not dry out. If Silly Putty is left out of the container over a period of several years, it may harden due to other ingredients contained in the putty. The other ingredients are proprietary and cannot be shared.

If your pet has ingested a Crayola or Silly Putty product, please contact a veterinarian for assistance. All Crayola and Silly Putty products have been evaluated by an independent toxicologist and found to contain no known toxic substances in sufficient quantities to be harmful to the human body, even if ingested or inhaled. In addition, Crayola and Silly Putty art materials carry the Art and Creative Materials Institute's (ACMI) APPROVED PRODUCT (AP) seal, which indicates these products meet or exceed specific quality standards.

Printing technology has changed over the years, eliminating the transfer of messy newspaper comic ink to skin. Since nontransferable ink is now used, newspaper comic print will generally not transfer onto Silly Putty as it did in the past. Silly Putty can, however, easily lift pencil marks from paper.