Plastic and accessible to everyone, the material allows you to create unique things for the interior. Salt dough has long been used to make beautiful crafts. From a pliable mass, together with a child, you can fashion figurines of animals, New Year's compositions and even whole thematic pictures.

Features of working with salt dough

Everyone can make crafts from this material - a small child who begins to practice the art of modeling, and an adult who has mastered the process in kindergarten. So that the molded product does not deteriorate, you need to do everything right - prepare the mass for modeling directly and dry the figures. Coloring also has its secrets, which you will definitely learn about.

• How to make salt dough for modeling

The consistency is easy to work with, but for a successful craft, you need the right kneading. If you correctly observe all the proportions indicated in the master classes, then you can make a pliable material. The figures made from it retain their original appearance. There are two popular salt dough recipes that are successfully practiced among homemade hand-made lovers.

Recipe #1

• wheat flour (WS) - 500 g;
• water (necessarily cold) - 200 ml;
• salt "Extra" - 200 g.

According to this recipe, the mass turns out to be of high quality, plastic and edible (which is important). All components of the material can be eaten, so it is great for working with young children during developmental activities. If a child eats a finished craft, then he will not harm his own health. Products made from safe material are the best choice for a curious baby.

Recipe #2

Also suitable for sculpting with kids, because the consistency is plastic and you can sculpt anything you want. During the game, the child must be well monitored so that the mass is not eaten. For cooking, you need to stock up on the following ingredients:

• white flour of the highest grade - 500 g;
• water (cold) - 200 ml;
• PVA glue - 2 tbsp.

The adhesive component in the composition guarantees the stability of the product made from the mass. Such a composition is easy to tint and color, and in addition, it has a long solidification period (it is easy to correct minor flaws in the finished craft). Try both recipes to find the best one for your own tasks (depending on age, skill, etc.).

• How to dry salt dough crafts

- an obligatory stage in the creation of crafts from salt dough, thanks to which products acquire strength. The drying process requires certain conditions, because at room temperature the figurine will not reach the desired condition, because in twenty-four hours it will dry out only one millimeter. In the summer you can try to put it in the air, but this will not give much results. It is best to use the oven:

• At a temperature of 75°C, the drying time will be an hour.
• At a temperature of 100 ° C - an hour.
• At a temperature of 120 ° C - half an hour.
• At a temperature of 150 ° C - half an hour.

Large items should take longer to dry, while smaller items can take less time to dry. To prevent the dough from sticking, the baking dish must be covered with foil. Decor in the form of beads, rhinestones, beads should be dried at a temperature not exceeding 120 ° C. Do not use a microwave oven or put crafts on a hot battery, otherwise they can instantly deform and crack. From time to time you need to turn the figures in the oven so that they are evenly baked on all sides.

• How to color dough products

The created and dried figurine can be painted in any of your favorite colors. The best choice for these purposes would be acrylic paint or gouache. The dyed product must be covered with colorless nail polish so that the paint lasts for a long time and does not lose its juiciness and brightness over time. You can make a colored mass by adding the desired tone (it is better to use food coloring) during flour kneading.

What can be done from salt dough with your own hands

Having mastered the technique of creating salty material for modeling, you can easily achieve mastery in which you can make crafts of any complexity. A new hobby may interest not only an adult, but also a child. Plastic dough is a wonderful material for creativity, the development of hand motor skills, concentration and much more. There are a lot of ideas on what can be made from modeling dough, while crafts can be of any complexity and are interesting for children of all ages.

Simple figurines for children 2-3 years old

Having plastic material at hand, you can organize a developmental activity for the youngest children. What can be molded from salt dough for a two-year-old baby? First, you should introduce the crumbs to the material - let them hold the mass in their hands, then clearly show what the dough is capable of, that is, make a bun or a snowman.

Small children are not capable of grandiose crafts, so it's best to start by following the easiest method and doing everything in stages:

• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, and then press small objects in the form of figured pasta, beans or buttons onto the finished layer.
• Cut out the dough with cookie cutters.
• Roll balls of different sizes from plastic material, creating little men, a snowman, a bun, a smeshariki.
• Roll sausages, making snails, caterpillars and other elementary figures.

For children 3-4 years old

For children of three or four years old, one rolling is not enough, because the child has already grown up and can perform more complex tasks. Salt dough pictures will be an interesting idea for creative activities. On a piece of paper, the kid with the help of an adult will create a three-dimensional image, and then color it. Pictures can convey any plot: from the seasons and mini-images of the country to episodes of fairy tales and cartoons.

For modeling with children 5-6 years and older

If you don’t give intricate tasks to young children, then creative six-year-olds can master complex crafts from salt dough. For example, these can be figurines in the form of a voluminous sheep, a mouse on cheese, or an original vase with a chic bouquet of flowers. Children at the age of five or six can master the technique of manual work using a salty consistency. Following the example of an adult, a child can even cope with those products that require a significant concentration of attention and manual dexterity.

How to sculpt crafts from salt dough - step by step instructions

The process of sculpting crafts is easy, takes a certain amount of time, but gives a chance to pay attention to your baby. With easy instructions and a few video tutorials at hand, parents can quickly figure out how to make a particular salt dough craft and explain it to their child. There are many product options, choose one or more and get started!

flowers

The created products will look not only beautiful, but also believable. For example, to make a rose, minimal effort is required:

• From the dough prepared in advance, roll out the layer (thickness is not more than half a centimeter).
• With a round object in the form of a glass, squeeze out five identical petal elements.
• Lay the circles horizontally on top of each other so that each component is in contact, protruding by a centimeter.
• Roll the steps into one roll, and then place the whole structure on one side on a hard table surface.
• Spread the petals of the bud on the top of the flower from the center in different directions.

Toys for the New Year

Original decorations are made easily and quickly. If you don’t know what can be made from salt dough for modeling for the New Year, consider hanging toys for the Christmas tree. For manufacturing, you will need salt dough, colored paints and wire for fastening:

• Bell. It is necessary to roll out the ball, make a bell-skirt. Attach the tongue to the wire, which will serve as a fastener on the branches of spruce or pine. Dry the finished figure, decorate in bright colors.
• Pendant figurines. Make a figure with a cookie cutter. Poke a hole in the top with a toothpick or cocktail tube. After drying, paint the toys, and thread a dense thread or thin ribbon through the hole.

Crafts for February 23

The best gift for a man is a symbolic gift that can emphasize valor, courage and strength. Thanks to special molds in the form of a tank, a soldier, a ship, you can easily make a gift for February 23rd. To do this, roll out the salt dough into a layer and squeeze the selected shapes out of it with a shape. It remains only to dry the souvenirs and paint them in military color.

Souvenirs for March 8

Flowers are the best gift for Women's Day. Why not make them from salt dough? From plastic material, you can create a bouquet that will delight with its beauty for many years. An excellent gift for a friend, mother, sister, grandmother will be a vase of flowers:

1. Make a mass according to the classic recipe, roll out a half-centimeter layer, cut a 15x10 cm rectangle from a piece.
2. At the top of the figure, create a hole with a cocktail tube. This will make it possible to hang the product on the wall.
3. Form a ball from the other part of the dough, roll it out and make a vase, slightly bending the neck. Attach to the prepared rectangular base.
4. Roll out three stems, attaching them to the vase.
5. Cut out circles for the bud and twist to form a rose.
6. Oval figures will serve as petals on which to make stripes.
7. Decorate the vase with voluminous balls or chamomile.
8. Dry the picture, paint it, and cover it with a layer of colorless varnish on top.

For the holiday, you can make decorative egg pendants with which to decorate cabinet handles, windows, or make an original garland. To do this, you need an oval shape to squeeze flat eggs out of the material. On the top edge of the egg, make a hole for the ribbon with a cocktail tube or a felt-tip pen cap. Put the product on a baking sheet in the oven, dry it, and then apply the pattern you like on the eggs with acrylic paints or gouache. Attach crafts to a long ribbon.

Video

Ideas for creating crafts from salt dough are unlimited. There are a lot of master classes that help you get trained, and then make a memorable gift from a miracle material, for example, for a birthday. Beginning craftsmen who want to turn a simple craft hobby into a favorite hobby will be helped by a video that tells you step by step what can be done from salt dough for modeling.

From this unusual material, you can make various souvenirs, and then also paint them. It is strong and durable and can please a person for many years.

How to prepare dough for modeling

From the dough, it turns out, you can not only bake pies and cakes, but also make wonderful paintings, toys and much more. It is easy to sculpt from it, almost like from plasticine, and the dried toy becomes hard and, unlike plasticine, will not melt in your hands. Salt dough makes wonderful and original surprise gifts, and you can prepare such material for modeling quite quickly. In addition, it will not require you to spend a lot of money - everything you need for this exciting work will surely be in your home.

Of course, the composition of this magical dough is different from the one from which grandmothers bake cheesecakes. There is no single, "correct" recipe, each master uses his own. We will try to stick to one of the directions, but if you want, you can experiment with the proportions of water, flour and salt. Only on your hands there should not be cuts and abrasions, otherwise the salt may get into the wound.

For work we need:

- flour - 1.5 cups;

- salt - 1 cup;

- water - 1 glass;

- dry wallpaper paste - 1-2 tbsp. l.;

- sunflower oil - 1 tbsp. l.;

- utensils for kneading;

- rolling pin;

cutting board or any smooth surface

- a plastic bag for storage.

Operating procedure

1. Pour flour and salt into a container and carefully add water little by little (be sure to first flour, then water, and not vice versa, otherwise lumps may form) and mix. If lumps form in the dough, knead them with your hands. So we interfere with the whole dough until it becomes soft and homogeneous in composition.

2. Add sunflower oil to this mass so that the dough does not stick to your hands, and wallpaper glue - so that the dough becomes like plasticine, bendable and elastic. Mix all this again thoroughly and knead the remaining lumps.

3. Now we take the dough and put it on a cutting board. We roll out the dough several times with a rolling pin in order to completely exclude the possibility of lumps.

4. Put the dough in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. An hour later, the dough is ready to go.

During modeling, you should not immediately take out all the dough from the bag - it will quickly begin to dry out in the air. It is better to pinch off the necessary pieces, and close the rest with a bag. If the dough remains after sculpting, you can put it in the refrigerator - it can be stored there for several days.

If your hands are wet, the dough will stick to them. You have to dust them with flour. And in order to fasten the parts together, on the contrary, you need the dough to be wet. To do this, we wet the parts that we want to glue with plain water and a paint brush.

After the dough figures are molded, you need to dry them, this can be done in two ways.

Method one- just leave the toy at room temperature to dry for 3-4 days or more - it all depends on the size of the toy and the temperature of the room.

Method two- roasting in the oven. We put the toy on a baking sheet and place it in a preheated oven. The temperature should not be very high, it is better to bake on low heat for 30-60 minutes. The figurine is ready when it acquires a light brown tint, but by no means dark.

It is best to paint the toy with tempera or acrylic paints, as they are the most resistant - watercolor will look pale and quickly absorbed, and gouache will leave marks on the hands.

The finished product, if desired, can be coated with a transparent varnish. And remember, although the toys look strong, they are actually easy to break if accidentally thrown on the floor. Therefore, do not leave them on the edge of the table and in those places where they can be easily broken. And glue the salty figures on the frames and pictures securely, so that they do not fall over time.

DIY salt dough gifts. Step by step master classes

People can do miracles!

*******

Friends, I found on the Internet several recipes for the technique of making such crafts. You could just give links to topics, but it often happens that Blogs are closed and there is no access to the topic. So I'm copying one of the recipes...

TECHNIQUE FOR MANUFACTURING CRAFTS FROM SALT DOUGH

Inexpensive varieties of flour are best suited for salt dough, without additives, emulsifiers and rippers. Wheat flour is best for cooking, rye flour doughs tend to have more pores, are harder to dry, and are harder to mold. You can mix flour, such as wheat and rye.

Additives.To increase the elasticity and strength of the dough, you can add 1-2 teaspoons of dry wallpaper paste, diluted in a little water or mixed with flour and salt before adding water. PVA glue is also used, diluting it with water. Sunflower oil (1 tablespoon) is also suitable, which also increases the elasticity of the dough, while the dough is not at all greasy.

Water should be at room temperature or cold. Never use hot water.

Salt Dough Basic Recipe.

300 gr. Flour (2 cups) 300 gr. Salt (1 cup) 200 gr. Water (1 glass)
If the test does not need much, you can reduce everything by half. A cup or deep dish is taken, flour is mixed with salt, then water is added. The dough must be kneaded very well, about ten minutes. If the dough is liquid, add flour, knead until the dough is elastic, uniform, well-shaped, but not brittle (similar to plasticine). Then it is placed in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator. It is best to sculpt the next day, it becomes more elastic and smooth. Sometimes when the dough is stored in the refrigerator, it becomes watery, this can be corrected by adding flour to this dough. And also products from the old dough during drying can be deformed, swelling appears, the color of the dried products is gray. Therefore, the conclusion is this: to make the dough as much as necessary for the next work, not to let the dough stale. If this happens, then it is better to make frames for decoration from such a test.

Drying salt dough products.

It is best to dry the products under the influence of temperature, in the oven, the products become more durable than when dried in air. Air drying takes a long time, a week or more, but the crafts are lighter, if the dough is dyed, the color does not change.
In winter, I always dry products like this: for 3-4 days I dry on a sheet of cardboard on a battery, and then at the lowest temperature in the oven. At the same time, I cover the workpiece with milk diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 1.

Test coloring.

You can paint products with oil paints
Watercolor or ink works best.

The dough is soaked and becomes slightly transparent, acquiring a glowprocessed bone. Gouache is also suitable for painting products, it dries quickly,it is possible to achieve in the works the same picturesqueness as in watercolor.
The dough can be made colored during kneading, if instead of water, a solution of food or aniline dye (water + paint) is added to the dough.

To give a special sonority and strength to the products, they are covered with drying oil or varnish. The product is varnished from all sides; to protect against moisture, if gloss is not desired, use a matte clear varnish. If you do not protect the craft with varnish, after a while, under the influence of moisture, the paint layer
will peel off the dough, and the appearance will lose its former beauty.

A tool for sculpting can be all kinds of devices. The main ones are a small kitchen knife, sculpted walls made of wood or plastic. Comb, cookie cutters, ballpoint, hairpins, marker caps, brushes, embossed buttons and much more.
To give dough crafts texture relief, you can use a coarse fabric, such as burlap.

It is necessary to work with clean hands, periodically rinse the dough from your hands and wipe it dry.

Modeling from dough requires maximum attention, accuracy, and the realization of your imagination.

Spread the finished work on thin newsprint. After drying, the paper is removed, the edges are cleaned with sandpaper, if necessary, the product is signed.

There are many techniques, it is for each individual.

Salt dough crafts look original in frames either made of wood orfrom the test. First of all, a background is chosen for the painted product. Certain
there are no recommendations, the only thing is that the background surface should be rough, not conspicuous, i.e. do not interrupt the craft, of course, in harmony with the product. It can be plain fabric, burlap, wallpaper.

The selected base is attached to the frame with nails, glue or a furniture stapler, and then the salt dough product is glued.

Sculpting with children from colored salt dough

Master class from Natalia Korobkina. She offers a simple lesson on working with colored salt dough with children. How to blind turtle, sun, dragonfly and fly agaric?

First of all, let's prepare the workplace.

We roll up a sausage from the yellow dough and divide it into two parts.

We roll one part into another thin sausage and divide it into eight equal parts.

Now - a little trick. Find any cup on the farm whose base diameter is less than the neck and circle the bottom with a pencil on colored paper. Now we turn each of the eight pieces into a micro-sausage and flatten slightly. Now, focusing on the drawn circle, it will be easier for the child to evenly lay out the resulting rays of the future sun.

Take the second piece of dough and roll it into a cake 4-5 mm thick. Squeeze out a round disk with the neck of the cup and place it on top of the rays. Do not forget to wet the joints with water.

Let's trim the rays with a stack. Next, roll up two small balls from white dough, flatten them and place them on a disk. To make this “design” more like eyes, add a small ball to the center of each eye. The balls can be pressed lightly with the tip of the rod. So we get pupils. Well, for greater beauty, draw a stack of cilia.

From two small cakes and a thin flagellum we will create a smile. Add freckles with the same ballpoint pen. Cheerful sun is ready!

As you can see, everything is quite simple and accessible.

And here are some more examples of creating simple works. I will omit the detailed textual description. I think from the pictures and so everything is clear.

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

In addition to decorating edible products, the use of dough of a special composition allows you to create very spectacular and beautiful decorative figurines, pictures and flowers. In this case, the dough perfectly replaces more complex and expensive materials, so it is ideal for young children. But this is such an exciting activity that adult respectable people are also 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 competently 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, less dirty hands and surrounding objects, gives more opportunities for complex work, and also perfectly preserved after proper drying, becoming hard and durable.

1. The difficulty lies in how to prepare the right dough that will not stick to hands and tools, will not crack and crumble. To do this, follow 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 fine "Extra" type salt. Coarse salt will create a coarse crumbly dough due to grains when kneaded directly dry, and dissolving such salt in water will take too long. In addition, there may be impurities in rock salt that will stain the modeling dough, and Extra salt is purified and very fine.

By diluting the flour with ice water, you can get an excellent, plastic and very homogeneous 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 accessible 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 to work. They are all found in our homes, in our kitchens, or among stationery, sewing and craft supplies.

Basic tools and materials for work:

• Rolling pin for rolling dough. If it is not there or the existing one is too large for children's hands, you can find a replacement in the form of an ordinary glass bottle.
• Knife for cutting dough. Children can be given a plastic knife from a set of colored plasticine.
• Board for rolling dough and making 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 metallic varnish.
• A set of brushes for coloring.
• Water container.
• Forms for cookies.
• A variety of items to add texture to the finished product - toothbrushes, combs, knitting needles, buttons, lace and more.

For small children, special clothing should be provided, as they can get very dirty. Stock up on a pack of dry and wet wipes before work - they are convenient not only to clean your hands, but also to get your brushes wet from excess paint. So it will be possible to avoid the spreading of dyes over the finished little thing.

Three best recipes

To knead salty dough, you can use your own hands or entrust this process to modern technology - a mixer or 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 mix the product well until completely homogeneous, otherwise the finished item may crack or break into separate pieces during drying.

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 crafts with fine details such as flowers, leaves, ornamental plants, and so on.

Plastic soft dough recipe:

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

Instead of oil, you can take glycerin, a fairly fatty cream or cooking oil. The introduction of fats or oils into the salt dough recipe makes it more plastic and elastic, and also avoids cracking of the product after drying. This option is especially suitable for "thick-walled" products, which can break if the dough is completely dry.

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

• 1.5 cups flour.
• 1 glass of salt.
• 0.5 cups of water.
• 2 - 3 tablespoons of PVA glue, wallpaper glue like "Metilan" or any other water-soluble glue.

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

Any recipe for salt dough can be regarded as a basis, since you can modify it “for yourself” endlessly, experimenting with various ingredients until you get the right composition.

How to Dry Salt Dough Perfectly

The main difficulty for beginners is the technology of drying the finished product. Drying can be done in different ways:

• "Bake" in a heated oven like regular cookies, at a temperature ranging from 50 to 80 degrees (depending on the size and thickness of the product). The finished little thing is placed on parchment paper for baking and placed in a preheated oven for about an hour. The duration of processing depends on the dimensions of the product. Do not remove the item from the oven until the oven has completely cooled down.
• Drying in a cold oven, that is, the product is placed in a cold oven, the heat is turned on and brought to the desired temperature. Everything else is exactly the same as in the previous paragraph.
• Salt dough products are best simply air dried, although this takes a long time. A well-dried craft becomes durable, hard and not subject to external influence. Normal drying is great for small or delicate items.

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

Used dyes and finishing materials

When preparing salt dough, the dye can be injected directly into the product itself and get a material very similar to plasticine. But the difficulty in this case will be working with the material - you will have to connect individual colored parts, and for kids it's too difficult. Everyone loves to work with paints, so for children it is preferable to use the schedule of a ready-made monophonic little thing.

In work, it is easiest to use 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 also use regular watercolor. It gives a beautiful translucent layer, and paints can be layered with glazes to obtain special effects - volume, transition of tones, overflows and acquiring different textures. If there is a need to obtain an opaque staining with watercolors, you can use a white primer. Its role can be played by white acrylic paint, gouache or tempera with the addition of PVA glue to hold it on the surface of the product.

For decoration, you can use bulk paints, metallic dyes, beads of different sizes and shapes, buttons, rhinestones and other little things that do not deteriorate from high temperatures if drying in the oven is planned.

Is it worth varnishing crafts?

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

The easiest way to use varnish in aerosols, carrying out processing in the open air or in a well-ventilated area. If necessary, varnishing 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 sparkles.

Salt dough types

For toddlers or beginners, you need to use simpler forms and objects that they understand. You can start sculpting with traditional cats 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 the young sculptors themselves, the work can be complicated, moving on to the creation of figures, paintings and compositions.

The pinnacle of craftsmanship can be considered the creation of flowers from bioceramics, as salt dough is also called. Of course, even a baby can make a simple chamomile, but only an “advanced” user can make a full-fledged bouquet of roses or a flowering jasmine branch.

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

A variety of panels and paintings from dough with salt

Creating pictures from dough is not as difficult as it seems. At the first stages of creativity, it is worth using a hint in the form of a photograph of the 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 as inspiration.

• A piece of thin plywood is suitable as the basis for the picture, but if it is not available, you can also use thick cardboard. A rolled out layer of dough is superimposed on the surface of the base. It can be glued with any suitable glue.
• All the details of the future picture are cut out or fashioned from salt dough and superimposed on each other as they move away from the background of the picture. That is, the objects farthest from the viewer will be laid out on the base first. This method will allow you to get very neat and expressive volumetric images.
• The finished picture is thoroughly dried, and then painted with suitable paints. After the paints have dried, the picture is varnished and placed in a frame. The product is ready, it can be hung on the wall in the room or given to someone who can appreciate the creativity 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. Such flat and at the same time voluminous products can be used to decorate boxes, decorate children's furniture, boxes with various things, or be used to identify, for example, lockers for things in a kindergarten locker room.

Figurines 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 a cartoon about a bear, heroes of comics and fairy tales. From salt dough, you can make not only figurines and dolls, but also various houses, benches, trees, fountains - in a word, everything that fantasy can suggest.

If you plan to make fairly large figures, you should take care of the internal frame and stands for stable standing. Desulphurized matches, plastic and wooden toothpicks can be used as a support for small plastics, cocktail skewers or Asian chopsticks may be required for larger items. Save wooden ice cream sticks - they can be the basis of many different products.

For stability, the figures must be placed on a salt dough base in the shape of a circle or oval - this will ensure a flat 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 voluminous, 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 the kitchen or dining room with them.

Flat figures can be cut out with cookie cutters. Hearts can become original valentines, Christmas trees can decorate the New Year's table, flowers can be used to mark places when seating guests at a holiday. Only fantasy can limit the scope of various dough products.

Spectacular flowers and plants from flour salt

The pinnacle of craftsmanship is thin and graceful flowers made from flour salt, as salt dough is also called. This work requires great perseverance, talent and accuracy, so it is more suitable for adults and teenagers. Toddlers, on the other hand, can successfully sculpt stylized flowers of a simple shape.

How to mold a complex three-dimensional flower, for example, a rose?

• You need to take a piece of dough and roll the core out of it in the form of a drop. The base of the drop is the bottom of the flower.
• Then you need to thinly roll out the dough and cut out rose petals of different sizes and shapes from it.
• By carefully placing 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 carefully bent, giving it a natural shape and shape.
• To complete the work, you need to create a cup of a flower with folded sepals, cut out some beautiful leaves with carved edges and connect all the details together with wire and pieces of salt dough.
• Finished crafts are left to dry completely, and then painted in the 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 would be a cute cactus that is supposed to be kept near the computer. A living plant, even one as stable as a cactus, may not survive in an office environment, but a lovely prickly creature made of salt dough will survive any cataclysms perfectly.

How to deal with possible problems

In any work, errors may occur, or things may not go at all as expected. Even if you do everything in stages, taking into account all the nuances, product defects may appear. Basically, these are cracking and chipping of individual parts of the product.

Cracks in crafts appear due to the wrong composition of the dough, errors in drying, or the beginning of coloring the finished item when the base is not completely dry. If the cracks are small or the surface of the product is covered with a thin network of small cracks, they can be repaired.

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

The lesson learned will teach that much more attention should be paid to the basis of the future thing than even to the finish - not only the appearance of the product itself, but also the very 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 the elements of the work break off during the schedule with too much exposure. In order to repair a toy with an even break line, you can use ordinary PVA glue. Apply layers of glue carefully so that ugly streaks do not form. The finished and dried item must be sanded and re-painted and varnished.

If a product made from fresh dough has broken, it is enough to moisten the fracture points with water, press the individual parts against each other and wait for setting. Decorate the dried work as planned.

You can try to restore a damaged figurine with the loss of individual elements by replacing the missing parts with pieces of fresh dough. Dry and fresh elements may not bond securely, so after the new parts dry, they may need to be glued together for strength.

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