Elastic salty modeling dough recipe. How to make colored play dough for young children's development? Salt dough caterpillar is ready

For those parents who are afraid to give plasticine to a too young child, but want their child to learn how to sculpt from childhood, salt dough has been created. Previously, only a mother could prepare this for her child, but today its factory version has taken a full-fledged place next to other products in children's toy stores. Although this mass was not invented yesterday, for many it still remains a bit of a mystery.


Peculiarities

The positive role of modeling in the process of child development has long been beyond the slightest doubt - it has a good effect on both the physical and mental components. At the same time, it is quite obvious that the earlier you start, the more impressive 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 of age, and in the future its use is desirable in the presence of adults.

In this context, dough can be an excellent alternative for young children. Made at home, its composition differs little from what is used for home baking, except that it is prepared a little differently, and almost always with the addition of a huge amount of salt, because This is the only way to guarantee that the child will not pull the modeling mixture into his mouth.



However, even if it does, it’s okay, because the product is made exclusively from edible ingredients that do not require much chewing and are easy to swallow.

Industrial production somewhat expands the range of ingredients - the composition may include additional plasticizers, dyes, and even glitter. Typically, manufacturers focus on the same theoretical suitability for food, although sparkles are unlikely to be beneficial to a child’s body. However, not all companies monitor this point so carefully, selling softer types of plasticine under the guise of modeling dough.



Since we are talking about consistency, it should be noted that modeling dough has another important indicator for kids - it is very soft. This mass does not need to be kneaded first; it is immediately ready to create masterpieces. At the same time, this feature does not allow the material to maintain an overly complex shape with small details. The mixture is very afraid of open air - it dries out in it, losing elasticity and becoming brittle. If desired, finished products made from it can be preserved by special drying or baking.


What is it for?

First of all, modeling dough helps a child develop fine motor skills and train finger muscles, and also greatly contributes to the development of imagination and creative inclinations. However, only adults see the purpose of the mass this way, while the kids themselves perceive children’s dough as another toy from which they can create various crafts, which they can then be proud of if the final result is successful.

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



If, when focusing on achieving the first two goals, you still have to think about whether your plan will work out or not, then you can look for inspiration for paintings almost anywhere. Subjects are most often taken from nature - children sculpt simple landscapes, animals, flowers, the same sun. However, you don’t have to stop there - if you have talent, at later stages you can move on to making serious images, or even characters from your favorite cartoons. Fairytale castles, fairies - even Shrek and the Fixies!

You also need to understand that different types of crafts are assessed differently by the children themselves. Kids usually want toys, so they are more interested in three-dimensional figures. Compositions and paintings are already real creativity, it is not intended for play, 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 properly knead with your own hands?

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

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




For a more elastic state, 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 dough. The described ingredients are not just mixed, but placed in a saucepan over medium heat. The exact time is never specified because pots and stoves vary greatly, but if the modeling mass has thickened and become homogeneous, it’s time to pull it out.

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


Of course, homemade types of plasticine do not end with just this recipe. In fact, you can have a thick notebook and fill it all with different plasticine recipes, but the most popular is another recipe that involves alternative ingredients and made with starch. To do this, two glasses of ordinary baking soda are mixed with a cup of cornstarch and half a glass of water, after which the procedure is similar to that already described above. There is no salt included in this recipe, so small children can simply eat this type of mixture.

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




How to make colored dough at home?

Making salt dough at home doesn't require much effort, but you want the result to be like Play-Doh - bright and beautiful. To do this, dyes are added to the dough - this is possible both at the preparation stage and if there is already a ready-made colorless mass.

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



By the way, you don’t have to buy dye, using all the same natural ingredients. Most often, fruit and vegetable juices are used in this role: beets give red, carrots orange, and so on.

You can squeeze this juice yourself or buy it; alternatively, any drinks of the appropriate color will do. To give the dough a yellow tint, various mild seasonings are often used, and coffee or tea is used to make the dough brown. However, it is worth considering that such a substance is not a specially selected dye at all, so the result may turn out to be even more faded.

You can color the dough not with food coloring, but ordinary gouache- the diagram looks exactly the same. At the same time, it is not at all difficult to get such paint, because it is used for creative learning in children's educational institutions, and is inexpensive, but the color gives a very bright one, which is what we need. However, it is noted that such an ingredient liquefies the mass very much, Therefore, adding a certain amount of flour is mandatory when using this method.



How can I paint the finished product?

Coloring dough as a raw material is suitable for creating simple crafts, but complex compositions with a large number of multi-colored details are easier to make from a monochromatic mass, which then, after drying or baking, will be painted on top. At the same time, the specifics of the material dictate its own characteristics of the coloring procedure.

People with extensive experience working with modeling dough indicate that it is best to paint finished crafts with acrylic paint, because only This way you can guarantee that the product will not get dirty and the colors on it will not be smudged. It is permissible to use watercolor, but since dry dough is very afraid of water, the paint should be mixed extremely thickly - this will also 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 painting. Gouache is also used for coloring finished products, but in order for it to adhere normally to the surface of the figurine, 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 fading. Liquid varnish is absorbed into the craft, which requires repeated varnishing and is a procedure that takes many days, but the result is bright, not just shiny.

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



How to dry?

When dried, dough crafts last much longer, but in order for them not to fall apart 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 source material and the exact drying parameters.

Play dough hardens even just on open air- Beginners usually rely on this method. The main disadvantage of this type of drying is the drying time: the dough dries on average one millimeter deep per day, so a voluminous figure of even a small size can take weeks to dry.

You can speed up the process by organizing drying on radiators, but there is also 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 baked, and a microwave is not suitable for such purposes at all - you only need to use an oven. There are many detailed descriptions of the process indicating the exact duration and temperature, but in fact no one knows exactly how long it takes for a dough craft to dry in the oven - it depends on both the shape of the craft and the shape of the oven.

It is even noted that the baking sheet can also influence the procedure - black provides more effective drying, and therefore it is necessary to either reduce the temperature by twenty degrees or shorten the baking period.

In general, baking lasts several hours at a temperature that gradually increases from 50 to 150 degrees. If the dough has been pre-colored, the upper temperature limit is 125 degrees, since more intense heating will destroy the dye. It is not forbidden to extend the baking process over several days. You can check the conditional readiness of the product using the sound it makes when gently tapping on the surface - the solid filling responds with a ringing, cheerful sound.



How to store?

Despite the fact that baby salted play dough can be kneaded at any time, mothers still prefer to find a way to preserve the mass for a certain long time, rather than re-prepare it every time the child has a corresponding need. It should be noted here that such a mixture will definitely dry out and lose elasticity, but there is a difference - after a month, or after a couple of days.

The most obvious method of mass storage, also used by industrial manufacturers, is hermetic storage. The store-bought product is sold in special jars with a tight lid, and if there are any left in the house from a previous purchase, it is best to use them. Alternatively, you can Wrap the dough pieces tightly in cellophane or polyethylene, however, this method is less reliable.



Storing in the refrigerator can also help 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 the figurine, it is best to bake it - then it will become quite hard and not very susceptible to external mechanical influence. Additional varnishing of the baked product will protect it even from accidental moisture, so you can be proud of your creation for a long time.



Edible dough for pie decorations

If a child makes really interesting figures, and does it from potentially edible material, you can use this in home cooking. If the baby is old enough to understand that playing with dough products won’t last long anyway, he will most likely be glad to have the opportunity to pleasantly surprise everyone by taking a direct part in creating the pie. This does not mean, of course, puff pastry, or even ordinary pizza dough, but the dough, which you can make with your own hands, molds perfectly, and most importantly, it amazes with its taste!

The first recipe is very simple - mix half a glass of Nutella with the same amount of flour, adding a tablespoon of powdered sugar. The finished mixture is much thicker than regular Nutella, which allows it to hold its shape, but still tastes very much like the original ingredient.


Craftsmen make various figures and compositions from salt dough. The hobby does not require special natural abilities or large material costs. And for children, this is a useful and exciting activity that, through fine motor skills, develops speech, attention, imagination and memory.

In ancient times, people gave each other figurines made from dough. This was a wish for prosperity and prosperity next year. Recipes for crafts were carefully preserved and passed on to the next generation. Let's reveal some secrets.

How to prepare salted play dough

In terms of its qualities and method of preparation, it is significantly superior to some materials used for modeling:

  • It can be made as soon as you need it.
  • Its safety allows even very young children to be involved in the work
  • If prepared correctly, it will not stick to your hands.
  • After working with it, all tools involved in the process can be easily washed
  • Products made from it are easy to dry and convenient to paint.
  • Such crafts do not break for a long time


Before you start, there are a few things to consider:

  • To avoid swelling of crafts when drying, do not use pancake flour
  • To prevent the dough from falling apart, avoid using iodized salt.
  • During the process, use only cold water, pouring it in portions

Basic Recipes

Universal option

You will need:

  • Salt - one glass
  • Flour - one glass
  • Vegetable oil – one tablespoon
  • Water - half a glass

Preparation:

  1. First you need to mix salt and flour
  2. Then add water and oil to them. Mix well and continue kneading until smooth.
  3. If you want to get a more elastic material, then instead of water you need to use jelly. To do this, a tablespoon of starch is diluted with half a glass of cold water.
  4. Separately, boil another glass of water. Carefully pour the diluted starch into it. The finished jelly should be thick and transparent
  5. Before adding starch to the dough, it must be completely cooled.

If the dough has a soft consistency, this can be corrected by adding salt and flour to it in equal proportions and stirring.



Dough from which you can make simple models

To prepare you will need:

  • Flour – 1 cup
  • Salt – 1 glass
  • Water - half a glass
  • Wallpaper glue – 2 tablespoons

Dough from which you can make large models

  • Flour – 2 cups
  • Salt – 1 glass
  • Water - 2/3 cup

Very strong dough from which tiles are made

  • Flour – 1 cup
  • Salt – 2 cups
  • Water - half a glass


Dough for making thin parts

  • Flour - one and a half cups
  • Salt – 1 glass
  • Wallpaper glue – 2 tablespoons
  • Glycerin – 4 tablespoons
  • For better quality, it is better to use fine salt. If you don’t have it, you can take coarse salt and grind it using a coffee grinder. You can dissolve it in hot water in the proportions indicated in the recipe. Then cool and knead the dough


  • Flour for preparing modeling material should not contain additives
  • After the dough is prepared, wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.
  • If you are modeling with small children, use dough that does not contain glue.

It is more convenient to color salt dough at the manufacturing stage. To do this, you can use natural dyes:

  • wheat and rye flour
  • chocolate or cocoa
  • fruit or vegetable juices (eg beets, carrots, parsley, spinach)
  • food colorings

You can paint using watercolor or gouache. Mixing blue and white paint produces blue, and yellow and red paint produces orange. Experiment.


After the dough dries, it will become slightly lighter than the original color. To prevent this from happening, the finished product must be treated with varnish. The color will become brighter and will not fade.

Working with salt dough

After finishing work, the product should be allowed to dry thoroughly. This is done in several ways:

  • Place the dried products in a preheated oven for an hour (temperature up to 800 degrees)
  • Place in the oven and gradually heat it to 1500 degrees and, without removing, cool
  • Place it on the battery or the sun


When using the oven, you should periodically turn the crafts over. If after drying your products are swollen or cracked, this can be corrected by drying them in natural conditions. Then clean with sandpaper and tint.

Making crafts from dough is a fun and exciting activity for the whole family. Preschoolers especially like to do this. There are several recipes for play dough.

Dough recipe for sculpting crafts

Compound:

  1. Salt - 1 tbsp.
  2. Flour - 1 tbsp.
  3. Water - 1.2 tbsp.
  4. Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.

Preparation:

  • Mix all the ingredients well, knead the dough and place it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for several hours.
  • As a result, the resulting dough should not stick to your hands; if it does, add more flour to it; Also, the dough should not crumble - if it does, add more water.

How to make salted play dough and how to work with it?

The composition of salt dough for making crafts is simple. It has only 4 components: salt, flour, water and vegetable oil.

When you make a dough craft, dry it well. If your figurine does not dry well, it will most likely crack. Take your time!

A very fascinating type of needlework is bioceramics, in other words, modeling from salt dough.

There are many compositions for its preparation.

Ingredients for the simplest recipe:

  1. Flour - 200 g
  2. Salt - 200 g
  3. Water - 125 ml

Very plastic salt dough for filigree processing of products (small parts and figures up to 300 g):

  1. Flour - 200 g
  2. Salt - 200 g
  3. Potato starch - 100 g
  4. Water - 150 ml

Hard salt dough for large rough figures:

  1. Flour - 200 g
  2. Salt - 400 g
  3. Water - 125 ml

For large items (plates or ceramic tiles):

  1. Flour - 200 g
  2. Salt - 400 g
  3. Water - 125 ml
  4. Wallpaper glue - 2 tbsp.

For particularly durable products:

  1. Salt - 1 cup
  2. Flour - 1 cup

Bustilate instead of water

With the use of boostilate, toys will not become damp, deformed, or break when dropped! You need to dry them over low heat in a half-open oven.

Dough for air drying rather than oven drying:

  1. Flour - 200 g
  2. Salt - 200 g
  3. Wallpaper glue - 2 tbsp.
  4. Water - 125 ml

Dough for waterproof, unbreakable products:

  • Flour - 1 tbsp.
  • Salt - 1 tbsp.
  • Vinyl glue - 1 tbsp.
  • Vaseline - 1 tbsp. l.
  • Lemon juice - 1 tbsp.

The recipe for classic salt dough for sculpting figures is very simple. It turns out to be plastic, suitable for the manufacture of even very thin and elegant products. Get creative!

Even children in our country know the fairy tale about Kolobok and the cartoon “Plasticine Crow”. Stories about how the leader of the world proletariat made inkwells from bread are remembered by older people. A spineless person was compared to the softness of dough, and stale bread to the hardness of a stone.

In the Scandinavian countries, amulets (wreaths, horseshoes) were made from dough to protect the farmstead from demonic forces. In China, puppets were made from dough. With the advent of plasticine in everyday life, modeling from salt dough was undeservedly forgotten, but is now experiencing a rebirth.

The opportunity to express oneself through creation and creation and exercises on fine motor skills are necessary for a person of any age, and most of all for children. The safety of the material for children to use, the availability and ease of making salted dough for modeling, and the “survivability” of crafts are undeniable.

“Mukosol, mukosolka, testoplasty, Arkhangelsk ceramics or bioceramics” are all modern names for ancient needlework, making handicrafts from salted flour. In order to captivate your child and try to “be like God” (who sculpted man) without leaving home, you need to know how to make salted modeling dough.

Preparation and ingredients

There are many recipes that differ in composition and proportions, some are intended for sculpting small particles, others for making large crafts, without flour, without starch, but all of them must contain salt.

The absence of salt makes the dough more porous and less strong. Obviously, our ancestors knew about this property of salt and added it to the dough not only for taste. You can experiment with other variations (proportions and methods of preparation, adding dyes and various components) in the future, when the first experience is gained.


Classic recipe

The classic recipe for salted play dough consists of three ingredients:

  • 300g. salt;
  • 300g. flour;
  • 200g. water.

Flour and salt must be taken in equal proportions (1 to 1, by weight, not by volume!). A glass of salt weighs approximately 200g, a glass of flour 100g. Flour for the “classic” is white wheat flour, finely ground. It is advisable to take the finest salt, not iodized!

When using iodized salt, the dough will not be completely homogeneous; inclusions of foreign bodies will be visible. The water should be clean and as cold (ice) as possible. You can knead the dough in 2 ways:

  • dissolving the salt in water and then adding flour (in this case, flour of different moisture content requires different amounts of water);
  • After mixing salt and flour, add water little by little (if you follow the written standards, the dough will turn out to be very plastic).

The initial mixing process is done in a bowl. You can use a blender or mixer. After the formation of a homogeneous plastic lump, the dough continues to be kneaded by hand on the table. The finished mass should be plastic, but should not stick to your hands.

Advice:

If the dough breaks, add water; if it sticks to your hands, add flour. It should be borne in mind that the amount of dough obtained will be considerable, so for the first experiment it is possible to simply reduce the proportions of all parts.

The dough made in this way can be used for modeling without cooling, or placed in a plastic bag and kept in the refrigerator for 2 hours. It would be more correct to place it there overnight, then after drying the material will break off less at the edges.

During the modeling process, you should pinch off pieces from the total mass and use them immediately, since in the air the dough quickly weathers (spoils) and becomes crusty. The shelf life of the material in the refrigerator ranges from a week to a month, depending on the preparation method, the tightness of the packaging and the temperature.


Other recipes

To make three-dimensional figures, the dough is prepared in the same way as in the classic recipe, only the amount of salt and flour will be 2k1. You will need:

  • Salt 400g;
  • Flour 200g;
  • Water 125ml.

This dough will be especially strong; it can be used to cover an aluminum foil frame when making three-dimensional figures.


There is also a recipe for cooking with the opposite ratio, 2 parts flour to 1 part salt. You will need:

  • Salt 200g;
  • Flour 400g;
  • Water 125ml.

This recipe already uses boiling water. All the salt is poured into it and stirred. After the saline solution has cooled to room temperature, add flour and prepare the dough. To achieve a better result, you can add 1 tbsp to the dough. glue (wallpaper or PVA) and 1 tbsp vegetable oil.


Recipe with oil and dye

Colored salted modeling dough is made according to a different recipe with the addition of dyes either during the cooking process (large volume) or into separate pieces of the future composition (small parts). As you become more interested in the art of modeling, you will move on to other salt dough recipes.

Recipe with oil and dye. To prepare you will need ingredients:

  • Salt 250g;
  • Flour 150g;
  • 5 tbsp. sunflower oil, which will improve the elasticity of the dough;
  • Water (the amount will depend on the amount of dye);
  • dye (you can use carrot, beet or cherry juice).

The cooking technology is the same as in the classic recipe.

Oil is added to the mixed salt and flour and water is gradually added. It should be remembered that you need to add a little juice to give the mixture color. The juices of cherries, currants (red or black), beets, carrots, corn, and spinach are used as dyes. You can add color to the dough using tea or cocoa. If necessary, you can add food coloring.


Recipe without starch with glycerin

Among the examples of crafts there are panels and products that will amaze with the abundance of small, mosaic details. In such things, a composition prepared according to the recipe “without starch, with glycerin” is used. The dough for such “jewelry” modeling is prepared from:

  • 200g salt;
  • 300g flour;
  • 4 tbsp glycerin;
  • wallpaper glue or PVA 4 tbsp;
  • water 125-150ml.

The main ingredients are flour and salt, but there is a recipe that allows you to make play dough without flour. You will need:

  • 1 tbsp. starch;
  • 2st. baking soda;
  • 0.5 tbsp. water.

Mix starch with soda, pour in a small stream of water at room temperature and simmer over low heat. When a dense “ball” forms in the bowl, you need to turn off the stove, wait until the mass cools down and place it on a floured table. All that remains is to knead with your hands. Having no flour in its composition, this mass is excellent for modeling.


There is also a recipe that does not contain salt: mix 150g of flour with a glass of water and 2 cups of chopped oatmeal. Add 2 tbsp to the resulting mixture. vegetable oil. This dough “plasticine” is stored in a cool place for about a week. If it has absorbed moisture and droplets appear on the surface, you just need to roll it in flour and mash it.

Other test options

There is another option for preparing dough with glycerin and starch. Flour 300g, salt 150g, 1-2 tbsp. starch, 100-125 ml water.

There are recipes with the addition of natural creams:

  • salt 200g;
  • flour 200g;
  • water 125-150ml;
  • hand cream 1 tbsp.

Cream and oil are added to prevent the finished product from cracking during the drying process.

Please note that preparing salted dough is impossible only from flour with impurities (pancake). Rye flour is used together with wheat flour for crafts. It will give a warm, rustic tone to the product. It is impossible to make salted dough from rye flour alone, as it will be very difficult to mold (tight).

Recipe for making rye flour:

  • wheat flour 300g;
  • rye flour 100g;
  • salt 400g;
  • water 250ml.


It should be borne in mind that the density of rye dough is greater, so it should be taken a little more during preparation in order to obtain the required volume. You can add another 1 tbsp to this composition. oil, which will enhance plasticity and prevent the mass from sticking to your hands.

Drying crafts

Modeling dough made from rye flour has one more nuance - drying crafts. First you need to air dry (0.5 cm thick for a week), then in the oven over low heat.

Drying crafts made from salt dough is carried out in 2 ways: in the air, this is the longest (about 2 weeks) and “gentle” drying, since there is less chance of cracks appearing. Every day the craft must be turned over to dry evenly on all sides.

Suitable for small and medium-sized products. Baking in the oven at temperatures up to 80°C. The finished craft is placed on baking foil and placed in the stove. The drying process lasts 1-2 hours (depending on the size of the product).

Almost everyone who makes crafts from salt dough improvises in the creative process and adds their own components to the dough. A variety of components are added to the composition: glycerin for shine, wallpaper or PVA glue for strength, hand creams for plasticity.

Dough that contains less salt allows you to sculpt openwork details, but becomes less durable. With increased salt content it will become rougher and tougher. There is no universal recipe that suits everyone. Create, invent, try!


Greetings, dear parents, readers of our blog! Recently, an old technique for developing a child’s fine motor skills has been revived - dough modeling. And today I want to tell you more about salted play dough. You will find recipes with photos at the end of the article.

Modeling is a great opportunity to express yourself or relax for adults, as well as develop fine motor skills and imagination for children. Modeling with children is fun and interesting. The big advantage of modeling from salt dough is that it will cost you much less than other materials for children's creativity.

For modeling, you can use pottery clay, plasticine, and ordinary dough when making cookies or dumplings together. Children love to make and roll balls from such materials. Salt dough is used exclusively for creativity, because it is inedible.

Since ancient times salt dough has been used to make:

  • Charms;
  • Kids toys.

Now this type of creativity is becoming popular again; the dough can be used to make:

  • Decor items;
  • Figures, toys;
  • Paintings;
  • Baby's hand or foot prints.

It’s no secret that adults love to do this type of modeling, preferring salted dough to clay or plaster; they sculpt entire paintings that decorate the house or are given as gifts:

2. Why salt dough?

Many people are surprised to hear that the dough must be salted in order to make something out of it. The fact is that you can sculpt something from any dough, because it is always plastic, but not from any dough you can make crafts that will be stored for a very long time without losing their appearance.

The secret material - salt - cements the dough, so the products hold up after drying. The main ingredients of this test:

  1. Flour;
  2. Salt;
  3. Water.

In addition, you can add other components, depending on what you want to get. This can be glue, oil or paint and can be added to any recipe. But the main thing here is salt, which should be finely ground and without impurities (iodine).

3. Salt dough recipes

There can be many recipes, let's look at a few of them. You need to choose the simplest flour, without additives, and the water should be very cold.

3.1. Regular salt dough

Compound:

  • Wheat flour – 1 tbsp;
  • Salt – 1 tbsp.;
  • Water – 0.5 tbsp.

How to make modeling material from these ingredients?

  1. You need to mix flour and salt, then add water little by little, quickly mixing everything with your hands.
  2. You don’t need to knead the dough for long; if it turns out too tight, add a little more water.
  3. If the dough is sticky, add a little flour. It all depends on the flour, so sometimes more water may be needed, sometimes less.

3.2. Salted dough with rye flour

Compound:

  • Rye flour – 1 tbsp;
  • Wheat flour – 1 tbsp;
  • Water – 0.5 tbsp.;
  • Salt – 1 tbsp.;
  • Oil – 1 tbsp.

Rye flour will give the product a soft brown color, especially if you dry it in the oven. Rye flour alone is not used, as the dough will be very tight and difficult to mold into something. The oil will give the dough elasticity and will not stick to your hands.

3.3. Salt dough with glue

Compound:

  • Flour – 2 tbsp;
  • Salt – 1 tbsp.;
  • Dry wallpaper glue – 2 tbsp;
  • Oil or glycerin – 4 tbsp;
  • Water – 125 ml.
  1. First you need to combine flour and salt, then add glue diluted in water.
  2. Mix everything and add oil.
  3. If the mixture is sticky, add a little flour. In addition to wallpaper glue, PVA glue is used, this is done for the strength of the material.

How to make colored dough?

To tint the dough, you can add food coloring or natural juice, adding drop by drop and mixing with the finished mass. In addition, you can paint the finished craft after it has dried using art paints.

If you don’t want to prepare the dough yourself, you can buy ready-made dough - it’s inexpensive, and you can immediately take a set of different colors and with molds. You can view prices and choose a ready-made set on this website. This is an excellent children's goods store with a huge assortment!

4. Crafts made from salt dough

As soon as the baby turns 1-1.5 years old, he can be introduced to the test as a way of play and development.

Another advantage of the test is that a child will not be poisoned if he tries it, and it does not smell like plasticine. This natural material is an excellent tool for making crafts. The dough can be stored in a bag in the refrigerator for several days.

A child of any age can use the salt dough modeling technique, gradually complicating the task. For beginners, sculpting small, simple figures is best.

The child can do the following:

  • Roll out the dough with a rolling pin;
  • Cut out figures from it using molds (from construction sets, cubes or cookie cutters);
  • Make sausages and balls;
  • Combine several elements into one figurine (attach buttons, sticks, beads to the figurine);
  • Make hand or foot prints on the rolled out dough;
  • Paint dried figures or crafts with paints (watercolors, a mixture of gouache with PVA glue, acrylic paint) - under adult supervision.

The child can stick different elements onto a thin layer of dough, creating pictures. Also, ready-made flat figures can then be glued onto canvas and inserted into a frame, resulting in a work of art.

5. Drying salt dough products

There are the following types of drying:

  1. on air;
  2. in the oven;
  3. on battery;
  4. in the sun.

One way or another, the products need to be dried well. If the layer of dough is thin, it will take less time. Three-dimensional dough pictures or figures need a long drying time.

The surest and easiest way is to air dry, preferably in a warm place, but not in direct sunlight. For a product up to 1 cm thick, it will take 4-7 days. Then check by tapping the surface with your finger. If the sound is ringing, the product is dry; if it is dull, it needs to be dried further.

It will take about one day to dry on the radiator; in summer you can put the product on the windowsill.

When drying in the oven, you need to set the temperature to low (50-150 degrees) with the door open. It will take about 3 hours for a thin product.

After drying, the craft can be painted or varnished to protect the surface from damage and brittleness.

You can watch a video on how to easily and simply prepare salt dough here:

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