Salt dough for sculpting for children

As a new creative activity, you can suggest that the child make salt dough for sculpting together. The finished material is completely safe as it consists only of flour, salt, and water. This dough is pleasant to work with; it is very pliable, elastic, and does not stain the hands. You can sculpt anything from it - from flat figures and painting scenes to large three-dimensional products.

The figures are dried at the end on a radiator, simply in the sun (if they are flat products) or placed in the oven and dried for a long time at a low temperature (about 50 degrees). If desired, the products can be painted with any paints and then covered with varnish. Sculpting from salt dough is a very engaging process that children of all ages enjoy.

So, the sequence of the process:

1. Prepare the necessary ingredients – 1 part of flour and 1/2 part of fine salt. You will need very little water – its amount will be determined during the kneading of the dough.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour with the salt.

3. Gradually start adding water, incorporating it into the dry mixture.

4. The components should be joined by hand to feel the consistency of the dough. It should not be dry and not too wet. Products made from dry dough are more relief, but this mixture is tough for a child and less pliable. If there is too much liquid, the product will spread out and not hold its shape. Therefore, you need to carefully add water, finding the golden mean at which the working material will be both pliable and soft, but at the same time can hold the set shape well.

5. Gather the dough into a ball.

6. Now you can proceed directly to sculpting. For simple flat figures, you need to prepare:

• salt dough;
• a little water (needed for gluing the parts);
• a few peppercorns (if making eyes);
• a garlic press;
• a rolling pin for rolling out.

7. During the work, you need to pinch off a small piece of dough, keeping the main mass in a bag to prevent it from drying out.

8. To make a sheep, roll out a piece of dough for the body. The thickness is 2-3 millimeters.

9. Cut out an oval. Combine the scraps with the main mass.

10. Transfer the workpiece onto paper and prepare the next parts – the head and ears.

11. Combine all parts by gluing them together with a small amount of water.

12. The body needs to be covered with wool. To do this, moisten it with water and start squeezing out short sausages through the garlic press, which will fall onto the sheep and simultaneously stick to it.

13. Stick on the nose, eyes, insert the peppercorns. Attach a small tail and legs. The sheep workpiece is ready.

14. Similarly, you can make various figures of cartoon characters, fictional characters. For example, the face of a cat and its friend the octopus.

These workpieces need to be dried. Since they are flat, they will dry on their own just lying all day and night on the table. But you can speed up the process by placing the figures (without removing them from the paper) on a radiator – this will take about 5-6 hours.

Salt dough for sculpting for older children will also be interesting. After all, whole pictures can be composed from it, three-dimensional figures, and decorative interior items (for example, miniature flower pots in the form of funny animals). Any paints (gouache, watercolor, acrylic, nail polish) are suitable for painting products from this material. And crafts covered with varnish (any) will last for years.