For those parents who are afraid to give plasticine in the hands of a too small child, but want the baby to get used to modeling from childhood, a salt dough is created. Previously, only a mother could cook one for her child, but today his factory version has taken a full place next to other goods in children's toy stores. Although this mass was not invented yesterday, for many it still remains a sort of mystery.

Features

The positive role of modeling in the development of a child has long been beyond any doubt - it has a good effect on both the physical and mental components. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the sooner you start, the more impressive the results could be achieved. At the same time, plasticine - the main material for children's creativity today, is not recommended for use by children under 3 years old, and in the future its use is desirable in the presence of adults.

In this context, dough can be a great alternative for young children. Made at home, it is not much different in composition from what is used for home baking, except that it is cooked in a slightly different way, and almost always with the addition of a huge amount of salt, because the only way to guarantee that the child does not pull the mass for modeling in the mouth.

However, even if it pulls, it's okay, because the product is made exclusively of edible ingredients that do not require special chewing and are easily swallowed.

Industrial production somewhat expands the range of ingredients - the composition may include additional plasticizers, dyes, and even sparkles. Usually, manufacturers are guided by the same theoretical suitability for food, although sparkles are unlikely to be useful to the children's body. At the same time, not all companies are monitoring this moment so carefully, selling under the guise of a dough for modeling softer types of plasticine.

Since we are talking about consistency, it should be noted that the dough for modeling has another important indicator for kids - it is very soft. Such a mass does not need to be kneaded beforehand, it is immediately ready to create masterpieces. At the same time, this feature does not allow the material to hold too complex shape with small details. The mixture is very afraid of open air - on it it dries, losing elasticity and becoming brittle. Finished products from it, if desired, can be saved using special drying or baking.

What is it for?

First of all, the dough for sculpting helps the child develop fine motor skills of the hands and train the muscles of the fingers, and also greatly contributes to the development of imagination and creative inclinations. Nevertheless, only adults see the purpose of the mass, while the kids themselves perceive the children's dough as another toy from which you can create various crafts, which you can then be proud of if the final result is successful.

For sculpting large volumetric figures with small details, this material is not very suitable, since its weight is rather poor. For this reason, it is much more often used for sculpting small figures, creating various compositions from them, and also as a raw material for creating three-dimensional paintings.

If, while focusing on achieving the first two goals, you still have to think about whether it will work out or not, then inspiration for paintings can be found almost anywhere. Plots are most often taken from nature - children sculpt simple landscapes, animals, flowers, the same sun. However, this can not stop here - if you have talent, at later stages you can go to the production of serious images, and at least the heroes of your favorite cartoons. Fairytale castles, fairies - but at least Shrek and Fixiki!

You must also understand that different types of crafts by children themselves are regarded differently. Kids usually want toys, so they are more interested in voluminous figures. Compositions and paintings - this is real creativity, it is not intended for the game, but it will help to gain recognition, respect and praise from others; therefore, such sculpting results will be more interesting to older children.

How to knead with your own hands?

Many housewives, realizing that the recipe for the mixture is actually very simple, prefer not to buy the mass, but to knead it on their own. It is very easy to do this, given that the ingredients that make up the composition are usually found in any apartment, and if not, they can be bought literally everywhere. Making the mass yourself will be much cheaper than acquiring, and in terms of properties, it will not be inferior to many varieties of store products - you just need to know the correct proportions.

If you are far from being a master, but still want to try making your own plasticine yourself, pay attention to the best recipe in terms of simplicity. The materials used for cooking will surprise with its simplicity - the mass is made from flour and salt, the composition also includes ordinary water. The exact proportions differ due to the fact that the final mass can be of different densities, but usually they are indicated as a glass of flour and half a glass of salt in half a glass of water, and then experiment.

For a more elastic state, they also add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and an extremely improved version is prepared with citric acid (two teaspoons).

However, for modeling, not ordinary dough is used, but choux. The described ingredients are not just mixed, but put in a saucepan on medium heat. The exact time is never indicated, because the pots and stoves are very different, but if the mass for modeling has thickened and became homogeneous, it is time to pull it out.

During heating, the mixture must be stirred to achieve uniformity of mass, but even after being removed from the pan, it is again carefully kneaded on a flat surface, sprinkled with a small amount of flour. The finished dough holds a good shape, does not stick to your hands and does not contain lumps.

Of course, homemade types of plasticine do not end only with this recipe. In fact, you can get a thick notebook and write it all down with different plasticine recipes, but another recipe that involves alternative ingredients and made with starch.   For this, two glasses of ordinary baking soda are mixed with a cup of corn starch and half a glass of water, after which the procedure resembles the one already described above. Salt is not included in this recipe, so young children can just eat this type of mass.

For greater durability of crafts, they also use a recipe with PVA glue - products from it are somewhat reminiscent of papier-mâché. A glass of finely ground salt is mixed with the same amount of flour, where a mixture of about half (or slightly more) a glass of water and a tablespoon of glue is gradually poured. You should stop adding water at a time when the future "paper" dough will cease to absorb it. After this, the mass is thoroughly mixed, since the grains of salt in it do not have time to dissolve, and the recipe does not imply heat treatment.

How to make colored dough at home?

Making salt dough at home does not require much effort, but I want the result to be, like Play-Doh (play before), bright and beautiful. For this, dyes are added to the dough - this is possible both at the cooking stage, and in the presence of a ready-made colorless mass.

To achieve the desired effect, you can use special food colors, which are sold in many food stores. They are liquids that are mixed with water during preparation (if it is in the recipe), and after preparation such a dye can be mixed into a colorless dough. Experts point out that in this way you can color the dough easily and quickly, but the result may not be very impressive - the mass will acquire a shade rather than a color, and for the normal brightness of the purchased dye you need a lot.

Dye, by the way, can not be bought using all the same natural ingredients. Most often, juices of fruits and vegetables are used in this role: beets give red color, carrots give orange, and so on.

Such juice can be squeezed out on your own or bought, as an alternative, any drinks of the appropriate color will fit. To give the test a yellow tint, various mild seasonings are often used, brown - coffee or tea. However, it is worth considering that such a substance is not a specially selected dye at all, so the result may be even more faded.

You can color the dough not with food coloring, but   ordinary gouache- The circuit looks exactly the same. At the same time, getting such a paint is not at all difficult, because it is used for creative training in children's educational institutions, and is inexpensive, but the color gives a very bright color, which is what we need. True, it is noted that such an ingredient very thin the mass,therefore, when using this method, adding a certain amount of flour is necessary.

How can I paint the finished product?

Staining dough as a raw material is suitable for creating simple crafts, but complex compositions with a large number of colorful parts are easier to make from a monophonic mass, which then, after drying or baking, will be painted on top. In this case, the specificity of the material dictates its own characteristics of the coloring procedure.

People with extensive experience with the modeling test indicate that it is best to paint finished crafts with acrylic paint, because only so you can guarantee that the product will not get dirty, and the colors on it will not smear. Watercolors are acceptable, but since dry dough is very afraid of water, the paint should be mixed very thickly - this will help it not to spread.

When painting with watercolors, there is still a high risk of smearing the contours, so the figure must be be sure to varnish after staining.Gouache is also used for coloring finished products, but in order for it to stick normally to the surface of the figure, it must first be mixed with a small amount of PVA glue.

Varnishing, by the way, is recommended for all types of dyes, because it can protect the surface from accidental ingress of water, and bright colors from burnout. Liquid varnish is absorbed into the craft, which requires repeated repetition of varnishing and is a procedure for many days, but the result is just bright, and not just brilliant.

Thick varnish is also used, but is still less common.

How to dry?

In the dried form, the crafts from the dough last much longer, but in order for them not to fall apart themselves over time, it is necessary to withstand the procedure. It is worth noting that there is no exact description of it anywhere - it all depends on the specifics of the starting material and the exact drying parameters.

Modeling dough hardens even just outdoors- beginners usually rely on this particular method. The main disadvantage of such drying is the drying time: the dough dries on average one millimeter in depth per day, so a voluminous figure even of a small size can dry for weeks.

It is possible to speed up the process by arranging drying on heating radiators, but there is a risk here - due to the heterogeneity of the consistency (soft dough inside, hard outside), the product is likely to deform.

For this reason   masterpieces are better to bake, and the microwave for such purposes is not suitable at all - you only need to use the oven. There are many detailed descriptions of the process with an indication of the exact duration and temperature, however, in fact, no one knows exactly how much the craft dough in the oven dries - it depends on the shape of the craft and on the shape of the oven.

It is even noted that the baking sheet is also able to influence the procedure - black provides more effective drying, and therefore you need to either reduce the temperature by twenty degrees, or shorten the baking time.

In general, baking lasts several hours at a temperature that gradually increases from 50 to 150 degrees. If the dough has been pre-dyed, the upper limit of the temperature is 125 degrees, since the dye will collapse with more intense heating. The baking process is not forbidden to stretch for several days. You can check the conditional readiness of the product using the sound that it emits when gently tapping the surface - the hard filling responds with a clear, peppy sound.

How to store?

Despite the fact that children's salt dough for sculpting can be kneaded at any time, mothers still prefer to find a way to keep the mass for a certain long time, and not re-prepare it every time the child needs it. It should be noted that such a mixture will definitely dry up and lose elasticity, but there is a difference - in a month, or in a couple of days.

The most obvious mass storage method used by industrial manufacturers is storage tightness. The store product is sold in special jars with a tight lid, and if those remained in the house after the last purchase, it is best to use them. Alternatively, you can wrap the pieces of dough in cellophane or polyethylene,however, this method is already less reliable.

Refrigeration can also help to prevent drying out, since cold in principle slows down most chemical processes.

If you need to save the finished product, then, first of all, you need to carefully protect it from water, since even a small drop will leave a very noticeable mark. To give strength to a figure, it is best to bake it - then it will become quite solid, and not very susceptible to external mechanical stress. Additional varnishing of the baked product   will save it even from accidental moisture, so you can be proud of the creation for a long time.

Edible Cake Decorating Dough

If a child sculpts really interesting figures, and makes it of potentially edible material, you can use this in home cooking. If the baby is already old enough to understand that playing with dough products still will not work for a long time, he will most likely be glad to be able to pleasantly surprise everyone by taking a direct part in creating the cake. It is understood, of course, not puff, and not even the usual pizza dough, but the mass that you can do with your own hands is perfectly molded, and most importantly - it impresses with its taste!

The first recipe is very simple - half a cup of Nutella is kneaded with the same amount of flour, adding a tablespoon of powdered sugar. The finished mixture becomes much thicker than the usual Nutella, which allows you to keep in shape, but it still very much resembles the original ingredient in taste.

Many needlewomen who are fond of modeling, or mothers, whose young children preferred this hobby, have tried many materials. Interesting figures, jewelry, paintings are created using clay, plasticine, plastic (polymer clay). Another original and environmentally friendly material that every woman can create with her own hands is salty dough. With its help, surprisingly beautiful products are obtained. But few know how to make salt dough right. Below you will find some good, proven recipes.

Salted dough for modeling at home

Salty dough is a material that has gained wide popularity among needlewomen. It is often used for modeling with young children, because, unlike plasticine, which contains substances that are not very useful for the skin of a child, such a dough is safe. And in the absence of glue, nothing bad will happen if the baby swallows a piece in the process of making crafts. Several advantages of salt dough over other materials:

• It does not require serious financial investments. As a rule, the necessary components for cooking are always at hand.
• It is quickly washed off from hands, does not leave marks on clothes or surfaces.
• It has good indicators of density, keeps its shape, does not stick to your hands during sculpting (if it is well and correctly mixed).
• Subsequent drying of finished products can be carried out both in the oven and in the air.
• Many substances, including natural dyes, are suitable for coloring the resulting crafts.
• If you cover the finished product with varnish, then they will remain for a long time.

Modeling is a great activity that will bring a lot of pleasure to both adults and young children. In kids, this hobby will help to develop fine motor skills, contribute to the development of the ability to concentrate, which is especially important in the preschool period. Finished products can be handed over to close friends and relatives as gifts for the holidays, paintings from salt dough will decorate the house, and toys will be an excellent reminder of the tender age of the child. In addition, joint modeling will bring parents closer to their children, which is also an indisputable advantage of this lesson.

Essential Ingredients

Making salt dough is a process that requires attention, especially for those who make such a mixture for the first time. However, the amount of ingredients is small and many of them are found in every housewife in the kitchen. The basis of any dough is salt and wheat flour, which are mixed with water. Some people make a mixture of wheat and rye flour to make the material better processable. To make the dough more elastic, thick, needlewomen can use the following additional ingredients:

• Dry wallpaper glue. This component will help make future products more durable.
• Vegetable oil or regular hand cream will give a salty plasticity test, it will be easier to sculpt with it.
• Potato starch jelly. This ingredient can be used instead of water to make the dough flexible. How to cook: in a half glass of water, dissolve a teaspoon of potato starch. Mix with a glass of freshly boiled water. Put liquid on the fire, hold until the mass becomes thick - the water substitute is ready.
• Food and other dyes to create color dough.

DIY Dough Tools

To make salt dough, you will need a wide mixing bowl, an oven (in the cold season, a battery is suitable, in the summer, if there is no oven, the material can be dried in the sun). For the convenience of sculpting, it is better to take a baking sheet or board: in addition, on the latter you can then immediately bake ready-made crafts. It is also desirable to have a plastic bag at home, where the dough will be stored for some time so that it does not dry out. An excellent replacement will be a container with a lid. What else might you need:

• Spoons, glasses to measure the amount of ingredients.
• Special shoulder blades for sculpting.
• Brushes, if stained.
• Gouache, acrylic, other paints.

Test options and features of working with it

Each needlewoman, a long time involved in modeling puff pastry, has its own secrets to create this material. Some have experimentally learned how to reconcile the ideal ratio of all components, and someone supplements the classic recipe with interesting ingredients that increase the plasticity of the modeling base. Below you can learn several ways to create salt dough, see step-by-step photos of its preparation, learn important secrets that help make the material perfect.

Classic recipe for beginners

The classic recipe will help beginners create salt dough with a minimum of ingredients. All that is needed to make the mass is fine salt (extra), wheat flour and water. The material prepared according to this recipe retains its properties for up to two weeks when stored in the refrigerator. Over time, you will learn how to determine the required amount of ingredients per eye.

How to do:

1. Pour salt (half a glass) into a wide bowl. Next, pour in water at room temperature - it should be slightly less than half a glass. Stir the liquid thoroughly for five minutes, then let the solution brew for a quarter of an hour. Some grains will remain at the bottom, but this is normal, then they will disperse in the test.
2. Gently fill in half a glass of wheat flour, kneading it well with a fork or spoon. Try to “break” the resulting lumps so that kneading is easier. A homogeneous mass should be obtained.
3. If after cooking the dough sticks to your hands or looks slightly liquid, you need to add more flour. Check the readiness of the material, leaving a trace in the mass with your fingers. If he doesn’t “swim”, keeps his shape, everything is ready.
4. You can start sculpting immediately after cooking.

Choux Salted Dough

More delicate in texture - choux salt dough, it differs from the classic version in that it is less dense. Unlike the outcome of the previous recipe, such material will be more viscous. Children are delighted with him, because choux pastry does not stick to your hands. As tools for modeling, you can use plasticine molds. What ingredients will be needed:

• Two glasses of water.
• A tablespoon of vegetable oil.
• Two glasses of flour.
• One glass of salt.
• A tablespoon of citric acid.

How to cook:

1. Heat the water in a pan, do not bring to a boil. Add vegetable oil.
2. Pour the rest of the ingredients into a bowl. Mix well. Then pour hot water there. You can start kneading the mass with a fork or using a mixer.
3. The mixture will be liquid at first, keep kneading without stopping. In hot water, the flour will boil, become more dense.
4. Stir until the material is thick, viscous. You can add dyes, sparkles until the mixture has cooled. Done!

How to knead the dough

All the ingredients of the classic recipe (flour, salt, water) should be kneaded with a fork, spoon, mixer or hands. You need to do this for a long time until the lumps are completely broken. If the salty dough is too thin, add wheat flour to the mixture. Please note that when kneading, the mass should not crumble, fall apart. To prevent this from happening, carefully knead the mixture until you get a cool dough.

How to make colored dough for crafts

Children engaged in the manufacture of crafts will be happy with colored material. You can paint the products already after you dry them, or add coloring substances to the ingredients so that the finished mass for sculpting will turn out immediately a certain shade. Food colors - powder, liquid, tablets, are suitable as dyes. The tablets must be ground before preparation. Essential Ingredients:

• Three hundred grams of white flour and small salt.
• Two hundred milliliters of water.
• Two tablespoons of vegetable oil.

How to do:

• Mix flour, salt, water, knead a cool thick dough that will not stick to your hands.
• Divide the mass into parts: they should be as many as you want to get flowers.
• Take a piece of finished material, make a depression with your fingertip. Pour water on the tip of a teaspoon. Put powder on top or pour liquid dye - it should dissolve, absorb.
• Start kneading the dough again until the mass is completely colored. If it dries a little, add a little vegetable oil.
• Repeat the same procedure with the remaining pieces.
• Fold in a bag, leave in the refrigerator until the next day. Done!

How to color the dough for children

Coloring finished products is another pleasant moment that adults and children like. If we talk about paints, then ordinary gouache or acrylic is best suited. You can also use golden, silver paint. For a thing to be durable, cover the painted craft with varnish. You can also decorate the product with beads, sequins, rhinestones, beads, taking into account the preferences of the kids.

How and how much to dry the dough in the oven

After sculpting, there is the next important stage in the creation of crafts - they need to be dried. You can use an oven for this. At room temperature, one millimeter of material dries out per day. Do not dry stuck things in the microwave - they can crack and lose their pleasant appearance. Oven drying is better than other methods. A few rules for drying finished products:

• The approximate time spent by crafts in an electric oven at a temperature of 75 and 100 degrees is one hour, at 120 - half an hour, at 150 - half an hour. In a gas oven, drying will take about twice as long.
• Pay attention to the size: if the thing has overall dimensions, the more time it will take. Control the temperature by opening the door.
• Turn the product over periodically.
• If you decorated a thing with decorative materials, such as rhinestones, beads, you can not set the temperature above one hundred and twenty degrees.
• Lay food foil on a baking sheet: then crafts will not stick.

What can be made from salt dough

Many interesting things can be made from salt dough. It can be jewelry - intricate earrings, beautiful pendants, beads for bracelets. The material is perfect for creating children's toys - animal figures, fairy-tale characters, various objects. Experienced needlewomen are able to make real works of art using such a dough: beautiful paintings and panels are very popular. Read a few more ideas for creating different things below.

Imprints and casts of pens and legs

The first months and years of life, a small child grows rapidly. At this time, young couples want to capture the baby in order to remember him forever at this age. Almost every family now has a camera, so needlewomen come up with other original ways to do this. For example, parents can leave fingerprints or baby feet on salt dough. When a child grows up, he will be interested to see this.

Pictures and panels

Volumetric paintings made using salt dough look amazingly beautiful. Such things will become a wonderful decoration of the interior and will amaze the guests who see them. In addition, a self-made panel can serve as a wonderful gift for any celebration - birthday, wedding. Unusual paintings will delight the recipient of the gift for a long time.

Figurines and flowers

Creating figures, sculpting plants soothes and brings true pleasure. A needlewoman can make things using salt dough on her own or with her children. Having tried once to make such figures, the kids will be carried away with this occupation with pleasure. It will be even more interesting to color the resulting products from unusual material.

Our distant ancestors decorated the surface of loaves before baking with curly images of spikelets, berries, leaves to attract good luck and receive blessings from their deities. Today we are doing this without any religious background, just for beauty.

In addition to decorating edible products, the use of a special composition test allows you to create very effective and beautiful decorative figures, pictures and flowers. In this case, the dough perfectly replaces the more difficult and expensive materials, so it is ideal for young children. But this is such a fascinating activity that adult respectable people are happy to do it.

Everyone can use salt dough for self-expression and relaxation, it is only important to know how to make a durable and plastic material, as well as properly dry and color the finished product.

The subtleties of making dough for crafts

The modeling of products itself is no different from working with plasticine or other similar materials. The advantage of salt dough is that it is more plastic, smudges hands and surrounding objects less, provides more opportunities for complex work, and is also well preserved after proper drying, becoming solid and durable.

1. The difficulty lies in how to cook the right dough, which will not stick to your hands and tools, will not crack and crumble. To do this, use a few simple tips:
2. Do not take pancake flour for work - it is more sticky and the dough will turn out to be of poor consistency.
3. Use only Extra fine salt. Coarse salt will create a coarse crumbling dough due to grains when mixed directly in dry form, and the dissolution of such salt in water will be too long in time. In addition, rock salt may contain impurities that stain the dough for modeling, and the Extra salt is refined and very small.

Breeding flour with ice water, you can get an excellent, plastic and very uniform dough.

Using these simple tips, you can start working with your children, creating a variety of products of amazing beauty. Salt dough is a simple, inexpensive and very affordable material for creativity, and children are just crazy about such useful entertainment.

Used tools and materials

When we sculpt from salt dough, we need special tools for work. All of them are available in our homes, in the kitchens or among office supplies, materials for sewing and needlework.

Basic tools and materials for work:

• Rolling pin for rolling dough. If it is not there or if it is too large for children's hands, you can find a replacement in the form of a regular glass bottle.
• Knife for cutting dough. Children can be given a plastic knife from a set of colored plasticine.
• Board for rolling dough and manufacturing products.
• Paints for coloring (watercolor, acrylic, gouache - any water-soluble dyes).
• Varnishes for finishing (water-based, best in aerosols). Additionally, you can use spray varnishes “with special effects” - “snow”, with sparkles, gold, silver or other metallized varnish.
• A set of brushes for coloring.
• Capacity with water.
• Forms for cookies.
• A variety of objects to give the texture to the finished product - toothbrushes, combs, knitting needles, buttons, lace and much more.

For young children, it is worthwhile to provide special clothes, as they can be very dirty. Stock up before work with a pack of dry and wet wipes - they are convenient not only to clean your hands, but also to wet your brushes from excess paint. This way you can avoid the spread of dyes on the finished thing.

Three best recipes

To knead the salt dough, you can use your own hands or entrust this process with modern technology - a mixer or a dough mixer. With their help, you can get a particularly smooth and elastic dough.

In order for the finished product not to crumble, you need to pre-fill the salt with the required volume of water, and then mix it thoroughly with flour. It is important to knead the product well until completely homogeneous, otherwise when drying the finished thing may crack or break into separate pieces.

Basic recipe:

• A glass of flour (wheat or rye).
• A glass of finely ground salt of the Extra type.
• Half a glass of ice water.

Mix the ingredients and knead the dough until smooth. This recipe is great for products with delicate details: to create flowers, leaves, ornamental plants, and so on.

Soft soft dough recipe:

• Flour - one glass.
• Small salt - one glass.
• The water is very cold - half a cup.
• Vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons.

Instead of oil, you can take glycerin, a sufficiently oily cream or cooking oil. The introduction of fats or oils in the recipe for salt dough allows you to make its consistency more plastic and elastic, and also to avoid cracking the product after drying. This option is especially suitable for "thick-walled" products that can crack if the dough is completely dry.

To work with fine details or many small elements, you will need to use an improved salt dough recipe:

• 1.5 cups flour.
• 1 cup of salt.
• 0.5 cups of water.
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of glue PVA, glue for wallpaper type "Methylan" or any other water-soluble glue.

Such a dough keeps its shape perfectly, small thin elements can be made of it, and with definitely “stuffed” hands you can do things that are outwardly indistinguishable from good porcelain.

Any recipe for salt dough can be regarded as the basis, as you can modify it "for yourself" endlessly, experimenting with various ingredients to obtain the correct composition.

How to Dry Salty Dough Ideally

The main difficulty for beginners is the technology of drying the finished product. You can carry out drying in different ways:

• “Bake” in a heated oven like an ordinary cookie, at a temperature ranging from 50 to 80 degrees (depending on the size and thickness of the product). The finished thing is placed on parchment baking paper and placed in a preheated oven for about an hour. The processing time depends on the dimensions of the product. Until the oven cools down completely, the thing is not removed from it.
• Drying in a cold oven, that is, the product is placed in a cold oven, turn on heating and bring to the desired temperature. Everything else is exactly the same as in the previous paragraph.
• Dough products with salt are best simply dried in the air, although this takes a lot of time. A well-dried craft becomes strong, solid and not subject to external influences. Conventional drying is great for small items or products made from delicate parts.

Do not use appliances or a central heating battery for drying. They dry the dough unevenly, which can cause cracking or spoilage of the thing if it has dried on only one side, has a dry surface and “raw entrails”.

Dyes and Finishes Used

In the preparation of salt dough, the dye can be introduced directly into the product itself and obtain a material very similar to plasticine. But the difficulty in this case will be working with the material - you will have to combine the individual colored parts, but for kids it is too difficult. Everyone loves to work with paints, so for children it is preferable to use the painting of a ready-made plain thing.

In work it is easiest to apply water-soluble paints. Acrylic dyes are very good - they give a dense and uniform color, have a large color palette and are easy to use, dry quickly. But you can use ordinary watercolor. It gives a wonderful translucent layer, and paints can be layered with glazes to obtain special effects - volume, transition of tones, overflows and the acquisition of various textures. If there is a need to obtain an opaque stain with watercolors, you can use a white primer. White acrylic paint, gouache or tempera with the addition of PVA glue to hold it on the surface of the product can play its role.

For decoration, you can use bulk paints, metallized dyes, beads of different sizes and shapes, buttons, rhinestones and other little things that do not deteriorate from high temperature, if you plan to dry in the oven.

Is it worth it to varnish crafts

In principle, the finished craftwork from salt dough holds paint very well, but if you plan to use this thing, for example, for games, or is it a chess piece, decorative vase, casket, in a word, a thing that will suffer from constant touch, then it should be covered varnish. It will not only protect the finished product from external influences, but also give a beautiful glossy shine, which is necessary for many types of crafts.

The easiest way is to use varnish in aerosols, when processing outdoors or in a well-ventilated area. If necessary, varnish can be repeated several times, drying each previous layer well. To give a special decorative effect, you can use special sprays, for example, with the effect of snow or with sparkles.

Types of salt dough products

For kids or beginners, you need to use simpler forms and objects that they understand. You can start sculpting with traditional kitties or dogs, fruits and berries, cars and other simple figures without numerous and complex details. Gradually, with an increase in the level of skill and young sculptors themselves, the work can be complicated by moving on to creating figures, paintings and compositions.

The peak of craftsmanship can be considered the creation of flowers from bioceramics, as salt dough is also called. Of course, a baby can also make a simple daisy, but a full-fledged bouquet of roses or a flowering jasmine branch can only be made by an "advanced" user.

To learn how to work with salt dough, you need to follow the instructions step by step and not rush to take on complex products.

A variety of panels and paintings from the test with salt

Creating pictures from the test is not as difficult as it seems. At the first stages of creativity, you should use a hint in the form of a photograph of a future “work of art”. For example, you want to create a beautiful autumn landscape. Find a beautiful photo with a few small details and use it for inspiration.

• A piece of thin plywood is suitable as the basis for the picture, but in its absence you can also use thick cardboard. A rolled dough layer is superimposed on the surface of the base. It can be glued with any suitable adhesive.
• All the details of the future painting are cut out or fashioned from salt dough and superimposed on each other as the distance from the background of the painting. That is, the objects farthest from the viewer will be laid out first. This method will allow you to get a very neat and expressive three-dimensional image.
• The finished picture is thoroughly dried, and then painted with suitable paints. After the paints have dried, the painting is varnished and placed in a frame. The product is ready, it can be hung on the wall in the room or presented to someone who can appreciate the creative approach and talent of the performer.

If you use foil as the basis for the product, the dried and painted part can be easily removed from it and then transferred to any other material. It can be a dense fabric stretched over a frame, glass, plastic, even metal. With such flat and at the same time voluminous products, you can decorate caskets, decorate children's furniture, boxes with various things or use them to identify, for example, lockers for things in the locker room of the kindergarten.

Figures and dolls made of bioceramics

For kids, there is nothing more interesting than sculpting "little men." They really like “cartoon” characters, for example, fixies, Masha from the cartoon about the bear, heroes of comics and fairy tales. From salt dough you can make not only figures and dolls, but also various houses, benches, trees, fountains - in a word, everything that a fantasy can suggest.

If you plan to make large enough figures, you should take care of the inner frame and the stands for stable standing. Matches with a remote sulfur head, plastic and wooden toothpicks are suitable as a support for small plastic; larger products may require cocktail skewers or sticks for Asian cuisine. Keep wooden sticks from ice cream - they can become the basis of many different products.

For stability, the figures must be placed on the base of salt dough in the form of a circle or oval - this will ensure an even plane.

If the figure is depicted in motion, it may be necessary to create a wire frame - it will help in modeling and will not allow the finished product to crumble.

In addition to three-dimensional, three-dimensional figures of people and animals, various fruits or vegetables can be created from salt dough. They are beautiful both on their own and as part of various compositions. For example, elegant fruits can be effectively laid out on a beautiful dish and decorate them with a kitchen or dining room.

Flat figures can be cut using cookie cutters. Hearts can become original valentines, Christmas trees - decorate the New Year's table, flowers - can be used to designate places for seating guests at the holiday. Only imagination can limit the scope of application of various dough products.

Spectacular flowers and plants made of flour

The pinnacle of craftsmanship is delicate and graceful flowers made from flour flour, as salt dough is also called. This work requires tremendous perseverance, talent and accuracy, so it is more suitable for adults and adolescents. Kids can successfully sculpt stylized flowers of a simple form.

How to create a complex volumetric flower, such as a rose?

• You need to take a piece of dough and roll a drop-shaped core from it. The base of the drop is the bottom of the flower.
• Then you need to thinly roll out the dough and cut out of it rose petals of different sizes and shapes.
• Gently laying one petal after another on a teardrop-shaped base, you can get a rose blank. To make it look like a real flower, each petal must be gently bent, giving it a natural shape and shape.
• At the end of the work, you need to create a cup of flower with turned sepals, cut some beautiful leaves with carved edges and connect all the parts together using wire and pieces of salt dough.
• Finished crafts are left to dry completely, and then painted in selected colors.

By this principle, you can create any flowers, whole bouquets, complex compositions and even imitations of plants in pots. The choice of plot depends on the imagination and creativity of the creator. A good example is a cute cactus, which should be kept near a computer. A living plant, even such a stable one as a cactus, may not survive in an office environment, but a lovely spiny creature made from salt dough will survive any cataclysms perfectly.

How to deal with possible problems

Errors may appear in any work, or things may go completely different from what they expected. Even if you do everything in stages, taking into account all the nuances, product defects may appear. Basically, it is cracking and chipping of individual parts of the product.

Cracks in crafts appear due to improper composition of the dough, errors in drying or the beginning of coloring of the finished thing with incomplete drying of the base. If the cracks are small or the surface of the product is covered with a thin mesh of small cracks, they can be completely repaired.

To do this, you need to finally dry the thing, and then thoroughly sanded the defects with sandpaper of varying degrees of abrasiveness. You can bring the surface to an ideal “velvet” sandpaper. Then the surviving cracks can be puttied with a slightly diluted water dough with salt. You may need to repeat the procedure several times if the cracks are very deep.

The lesson learned will teach that much more attention needs to be paid to the basis of a future thing than even to decoration - not only the appearance of the product itself, but also the fact of its existence depends on its quality.

It happens that during the drying process, part of the product simply disappears, especially often this happens with thin parts or fragile small fragments. Sometimes work items break off during painting with too much exposure. In order to repair a toy with an even break line, you can use ordinary PVA glue. Apply glue layers carefully so that ugly streaks do not form. Finished and dried things need to be processed with emery and repainted and varnished.

If the product breaks from fresh dough, moisten the fault points well enough with water, press individual parts to each other and wait for setting. Decorate the dried work as planned.

A damaged figure with the loss of individual elements can be tried to be restored by replacing the missing parts with pieces of fresh dough. Dry and fresh elements may not bond securely, so after drying new parts, they may need to be glued together for strength.

Give yourself and your children the pleasure of creativity, because working with the dough is easy and enjoyable, and the cost of materials is scanty. The result of the work can exceed any expectations!

To make various figures during modeling, you can use plasticine or polymer clay, but it is best to make salt dough using natural and safe ingredients. Such material is especially useful to you if you are engaged in the manufacture of crafts with children.

As known, modeling develops perseverance, imagination, and also - trains fine motor skills. Such creative activity is directly related to the work of the brain center and the development of speech in the child. If you decide to do modeling at home, do not be lazy and try to make salt dough yourself.

There are a lot of recipes that make salty dough for sculpting at home. A universal method that would suit absolutely everyone does not exist. Always need to experiment, try, apply your imagination, skill, experience. If you are a beginner, then before creating your masterpieces, review the video instructions, which step by step and in detail tells how to make salt dough for modeling. And we want to offer you some simple and original recipes for making dough.

To prepare the test for the first recipe, you will need:

•   wheat flour - 1 cup;
•   fine salt - 1 cup;
•   water - 0.5 cups;
•   vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. a spoon.

In a large bowl, mix the salt with flour, add vegetable oil, water and knead the dough. Put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, then take it out and get to work. Such a dough can be stored in the refrigerator for several days, as well as frozen.

To make salt dough for crafts on the second recipe, try taking more salt:

•   salt - 2 glasses;
•   flour - 1 cup;
•   wallpaper glue (in dry form) - 1 tbsp. a spoon;
•   water - 1 cup.

In a bowl, mix salt and wallpaper glue, add flour. Grind all ingredients well and fill with water. Now you need to thoroughly knead the mass, and then knead to make the dough elastic. Do not rush, spend 10-15 minutes at this stage, but you will really like the result.

Dough prepared in this way can be used immediately. To mold from such a test is a pleasure - it is soft and does not stick to hands. To experiment with the shade, you can replace half the flour with rye. But only half. If you make salty dough for crafts, 100% consisting of rye flour, it will come out too hard and not elastic. You can also make the dough color - at the kneading stage add food coloring or gouache. You can also paint the figures after drying - the work will come out even more interesting.

In principle, preparing a dough for sculpting at home leaves unlimited possibilities for imagination, creativity and experiment. However, in order to do everything right and be satisfied with the result, consider some points.

1. Much depends on the quality of the flour from which you will create your dough.. Sift the flour before preparing the dough, so it will be softer and more elastic. Mix rye flour with wheat to get a velvety dough structure.
2. Take salt small - best of all "Extra"   - so you get the perfect dough.
3. Do not store finished dough for a long time outdoors.   - it is better to keep it in a sealed container or in polyethylene.

Also, you need to deal with volumes and grams: for example, 1 glass of flour weighs about 100 g, and if you fill the same glass with salt, then the weight will be 200 g.

How to knead salt dough for crafts?

Now we will tell you in more detail about how to make salt dough: the recipe is so simple that even children can handle it (of course, under the supervision of adults).

Mix 2 cups of wheat flour, 1 cup of Extra salt and ¾ cup of water.

At the same time, there are 2 ways to prepare the dough:

1st method. You can dissolve the salt in water, and then gradually add the flour, stirring all the time. The dough is thick and dense, and products made from it can be dried even in the open air.

2nd method. Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the salt in it, and then gradually introduce the sifted flour. Stir the mixture until a uniform consistency is obtained. When the dough thickens a little, knead it with your hands for 10 minutes. So you get a great soft dough, which is very nice to work with.

How to make figures from salt dough and properly dry them?

Many different crafts are made from salt dough: figurines, souvenirs, Christmas-tree decorations, fridge magnets, jewelry or three-dimensional paintings. You can use special stencils, sculpt crafts yourself or cut figures with a knife. If you intend to cut out small parts, do it on a hole that needs to be moistened with water beforehand. So you get smooth products that can be sent to the oven without shifting.

Drying dough products also has a few secrets. You can not dry crafts at a time. Of course, you can dry your crafts in the air, but this takes weeks to complete. To get strong, sturdy products, use an oven. Drying in the oven is recommended in several stages:

1. Immediately after manufacturing, send the figure to the oven for half an hour. At the same time, do not preheat the oven.
2. The next day, dry the product at a temperature of 150 degrees for 1 hour.
3. Repeat drying in a day.

The fact that the product is ready, you will notify a characteristic sonorous sound when you lightly tap on it.

The use of various natural materials for creativity has recently become increasingly popular. This is especially useful for children. So, let's look at a few recipes on how to make salt dough for modeling.

How to make salt dough for modeling: a list of recipes

There are many recipes for salt dough, everyone finds more suitable for themselves, which is pleasant and successful to work with.

Recipe number 1.

It should take:

• four glasses of flour;
• two glasses of shallow salt;
• two glasses of warm water.

If you want to make colored dough, then take the necessary paint, ink or gouache.

Knead the dough for about ten minutes, kneading it well. As a result, it should be soft and crack free. It should not stick to hands.

Keep such a dough in a closed container or polyethylene, because it dries quickly in the air. You can start working immediately with a dough prepared in this way.

Recipe number 2.

It should take:

• two cups of flour;
• one cup of salt;
• two thirds of a cup of water.

To prepare the test for this recipe, you should take boiling water. Pour salt into it and wait until it dissolves.

After that, add all the flour to the salt water, pouring it carefully and constantly stirring. The result should be a thick and fairly solid dough.

Recipe number 3.

It should take:

• two glasses of flour;
• one cup of fine salt;
• one glass of water.

Mix salt with flour, then slowly pour water there and knead the dough until a plastic mass is obtained.

If the dough turns out to be a little dry, then you should add a little water, and if a little liquid, then flour and salt.

You need to knead the dough for about ten or fifteen minutes so that the result is better.

Recipe number 4.

It should take:

• one hundred grams of wheat flour;
• one hundred grams of rye flour;
• 400 grams of salt;
• one glass of water;
• two tablespoons of wallpaper glue.

Adding rye flour to the dough, you change its color from white to a warm brown tint. But if you use only rye flour for the test, then it will turn out to be inelastic and solid. That is why wheat flour should be added.

To prepare the dough, mix the flour, glue and fine salt. Then add water. Knead the dough well and knead so that during modeling it does not tear or crumble.

Advantages and disadvantages of salt modeling dough in front of other materials

Of course, each material has its own disadvantages and advantages. Consider those for salt dough.

• special money is not needed for its preparation;
• after it is easy to wash your hands and work surface, also leaves no residue;
• there are recipes (prepared without glue) that are absolutely safe for children if they get into the mouth;
• the proper preparation of the dough is the guarantee that it will mold well and not stick to your hands;
• products made from it can be dried in the oven, or can just be in the air;
• the surface of the prepared dough product is well suited for painting with almost any paint;
• when coating a finished and painted product with varnish, it is well preserved for many years.

If we talk about the shortcomings, then actually they are not there, unless the product is dried for a long time. It is important to observe the technology in its preparation, otherwise crafts simply will not work.

In order for the dough to work out well, you should follow some tips:

• salt for the dough must be taken fine, it is better to “Extra”, if there is none, then take the usual and grind it in a coffee grinder;
• to make figures, use a baking sheet, then the reverse side of the product will be flat;
• add water to the dough gradually, use only cold (unless otherwise specified in the recipe);
• if glue is used, then it must be diluted with water to the consistency of sour cream;
• varnishes for fixing and protection need to use transparent furniture or art;
• do not recommend storing finished dough for more than three days;
• natural dyes can also be used for dough coloring, for example, curry, nutmeg, instant coffee, cocoa powder, cinnamon, caraway seeds (all in ground form);
• after baking already painted products, their color changes.

What can be made from salt dough?

From salt dough, you can cook almost anything. Various Christmas tree figurines, fridge magnets, key rings or just jewelry. An experienced craftsman can make a complete picture out of this material!

For the preparation of figures, you can use all the materials at hand - from children's molds, to various more professional tools. Various prints are made with a dough that has not yet been dried. To connect the parts using a wet brush.

After preparing the product, it must be dried. This can be done in the oven (as professionals do) or outdoors. The main thing is to wait until it dries completely.

Most importantly, you can play with dough products later, or they can just stand as a decoration. Observing all the stages of preparation, the product will turn out to be strong and durable. I wish you creative success !!!

How? You have not read: