Salted dough is a very popular craft material. Such an elastic mass is easy to prepare using a minimum set of ingredients, and the finished products are of excellent quality and are able to delight their owners for a long time.
The dough is recommended as the main consumable for creative activities, due to its practicality and safety.
Benefits of Salted Dough
Today, quite a lot of different materials for modeling are known, among which are airy plasticine and polymer clay. However, salted dough has some advantages over other bases:
- Availability. The dough is easy to make at home, while not requiring any financial costs.
- The surface of the mass hardens quickly and remains firm for a long time.
- Even at the kneading stage, paints or food coloring can be added to the dough to give the finished product the desired color.
- The craft can be painted even after the working mass has completely solidified.
- In the photo of dough crafts, you can see how the smallest details can be created on the surface of the product.
- All the ingredients that make up this material are safe for humans, which allows you to use the dough to create children's crafts.
- The ever-growing number of new dough craft ideas is amazing.
- The remnants of the working mass can be washed both from the surface of the hands and from any other surface (for example, from a cutting board).
- With proper processing and decoration, finished toys will delight their young owners for a long time, because the material does not deform over time.
Like most other plastic compounds, salted dough is great for sculpting interesting products. Sculpting allows you to quickly develop many skills, including fine motor skills of the fingers.
Making salt dough
The first step towards creating original crafts is to prepare a plastic mass. For a classic recipe for craft dough, you will need 1 part flour, 1 part salt (it is better to take a shallow one), a few tablespoons of sunflower oil and a little water.
If you plan to paint the material at this stage, you should prepare food colors or paints in advance.
Instructions on how to make a dough for crafts:
- In a separately prepared container, flour and salt are mixed (at the same stage, food colors or pigments are added).
- Water and vegetable oil are added to the dry mixture.
The resulting mass is thoroughly mixed so that the dyes are evenly distributed over the dough. The very same thick mass, when kneaded, acquires the proper plasticity for creative work.
Children's dough crafts
Salt dough modeling brings a lot of positive emotions not only to children, but also to their parents. Even an adult should start creative activities with light crafts.
Crafts from the test for children are recognized as the most optimal for learning:
- Figures of animals.
- Fruits and vegetables.
- Images of the moon, stars and other objects that do not require careful attention to detail.
All work is carried out according to a single instruction:
- A layer of the working mass is rolled out on a cutting board.
- Auxiliary tools are used in the work: tweezers, knives, metal baking tins, needles, buttons.
- All these items allow you to create an interesting relief on the surface of the future craft.
- The finished figure is placed in the open air or in a preheated oven (sometimes cold oven is used).
After the material has completely solidified, the figure is painted, and acrylic varnish is applied on top, which protects the surface of the product from cracks, the paint from burnout.
Holiday toy "House"
Hand-made New Year's dough crafts are very popular. One possible figure is a hanging house.
When carrying out independent work, you should try to make the toy as bright as possible in order to maintain a festive atmosphere. How to make a craft from salt dough:
- A thick layer is rolled out on a cutting board.
- To cut out a figurine of a house, you will need any metal shape that has the shape of a square or rectangle.
- With the help of a sharp knife (you can use a clerical knife), they give the roof the proper shape, not forgetting about the very symbolic chimney pipe.
- Using a sharp needle or toothpick, the necessary relief is created on the facade of the house: windows, a door, a drawing on the wall.
- The next challenge is to add color to the Christmas toy. The most advantageous color is deep blue or bright red. The edging of the facade can be made in golden color. This part of the creative work is the most subjective, and will require imagination from the master.
After drying, the product is also covered with acrylic varnish, and a metal wire hook is attached to the upper part of the craft.
Fairy house for composition
After the training and the practical part, you can start doing more complex crafts.
- A distinctive feature of salt dough is its ability to keep a given shape, without deformation and cracking on the surface of toys.
- A beautiful fairy-tale house will allow you to profitably decorate the interior of not only a nursery, but also a living room.
- Modeling in this case will require the use of a sketch or photograph of the future product, on which you can see the smallest details and nuances.
The relief of brick or masonry, windows, roof tiles are created using a toothpick or a large needle.
Photo of dough crafts
