Salted dough is a great material for creativity. Figures, bas-reliefs, photo frames and other souvenirs are made from it. It is only important to properly prepare the material for modeling. And there are a lot of recipes for making salty dough.
Salted dough as a material for creativity has been known for a long time, but in Russia it became popular only a few decades ago. It was then that fans of arts and crafts began to experiment with flour and salt, from which interesting crafts and souvenirs were obtained. It is noteworthy that such a hobby is perfect for classes with children who develop fine motor skills of their hands during sculpting. And, of course, a big plus of salted dough is the availability of products for its production.
Flour and salt for creativity
The main ingredients of the salt dough are flour, salt and water. But the artisans have many of their own recipes, accumulated with experience. The craftsmen supplement the classic versions of the dough with new components, improving the composition and quality of the plastic mass. For example, to make the dough more plastic, some masters add a drop of vegetable oil to the salt mass to give the dough the desired shades - a dye.
Making the right salty dough is easy. For it, you need to mix two glasses of wheat flour with a glass of fine salt, it is best to use the "Extra" variety, with 3/4 cup of water, best of all cold. And mix everything thoroughly to get a soft plastic mass. To prevent the dough from losing its shape and cracking during drying, it is useful to add dry wallpaper glue or PVA glue to it. But at the same time, the proportions of the main components will be different. So, you will need one glass of wheat flour, two glasses of fine salt, a little less than a glass of water, and one tablespoon of dry glue. Pour salt into a bowl, add a little water, and then gradually add flour to the salty solution. Knead the dough thoroughly. It should turn out to be plastic, like for baking. Then you can immediately get down to business.
Refined dough
In order for the salted dough to hold its shape well and the figures remain beautiful for many years, it is recommended to use the following improved recipe. Take 200 g of wheat flour, add to it 100 g of salt, one tablespoon of vegetable oil, two teaspoons of cream, 1.5 cups of water (about 300 ml) and a few drops or granules of food coloring. To make the dough, take a small saucepan and combine the salt, flour, cream and butter in it. Dilute the dye in a separate bowl, you can use egg paint. Then slowly pour the colored water into the flour, stirring the mixture with a spoon so that no lumps form, knead the dough and put the pan on low heat. At first, the resulting mass will be very liquid, but soon it will begin to thicken. Stir the dough until it is completely thickened. Then transfer the mass (preferably with a wooden spoon) to a plate or any smooth surface, let cool. Then you can get to work.
Useful Tips
To give the salt dough the color you need for work, you can add diluted gouache for painting, watercolors to the flour. And you can paint an already finished work, paints, gouache and even colored nail polish are suitable for this.
So that the finished work does not lose its appearance, cover them with varnish, it is best to use acrylic for this purpose. For the strength of the dough, so that it does not burst, the glue can be replaced with a bustilate.
For fine crafts, add a few drops of glycerin to the dough.
