Salt Dough Crafts

New Year is a family holiday. For every such celebration, I always try to come up with unique gifts for my loved ones to make them happy. You could say I take on the role of “Santa Claus”!

This year, I wanted to make something with my own hands, and I chose a traditional craft method — salt dough figurines. They turned out so beautiful that I want to share them with you! But first, I’ll teach you this simple recipe so you can create something of your own.

For the dough, we will need:

• Salt – 300g

• Water – 200ml

• Flour – 300g

• Plastic wrap or a bag

This is the recipe I used to make my crafts, but you can find other variations: with sunflower oil, glue, food coloring… I just went with the simplest recipe.

• Take a deep bowl and pour in warm water. Room temperature works too, just make sure it’s not cold.

• Add salt — it should be fine salt. I didn’t have fine salt, so I used coarse salt, and it worked just as well.

• Stir to dissolve the salt in the water. It doesn’t need to dissolve completely.

• Add flour and mix, creating a thick, dense consistency. The dough should be moderately sticky and not crumble.

• Place the ball of dough into plastic wrap or a plastic bag and let it rest for 2-3 hours.

If the dough crumbles, add a bit more water. If it’s too sticky, add more flour. Once the dough has rested, you can start sculpting!

Since the dough contains a lot of salt, it stays fresh for a long time (around 1-2 weeks) and lasts indefinitely once dried. However, the created figurines are quite fragile and can break easily, so they should be handled with care.

As with any creative project, I gathered a few references before starting. I decided to make Christmas tree ornaments shaped like candies from my childhood and figurines of cats inspired by my parents’ pets.

It may sound funny, but this is an important step! I recommend making a few sketches before starting if you want to create something unique.

The sculpting process is challenging mainly because the dough’s texture is different from clay or plasticine — it’s not as pliable. But after about 30 minutes of experimenting, you’ll start to get the hang of it.

Once the figurines are ready, they need to dry. This will take 2-3 days (a bit longer for thicker pieces). During the drying process, it’s a good idea to turn them over, as the areas where the dough touches the surface tend to stay moist.

I don’t recommend leaving the figurines near a radiator — they might crack.

In the photo, you can see many figurines, but only some of them survived: the horse decided to break into five pieces, and the candy with tails just didn’t turn out right in terms of color.

 Once the figurines dried, I sanded them lightly with a manicure file to remove chips and uneven surfaces. This step is optional, but it helps the piece feel smoother and allows the paint to go on more evenly.

For painting, I used children’s sparkly acrylic paint. Before adding details, I completely covered the figurines with white paint to ensure that the other colors would go on evenly without any blending or discoloration. Acrylic dries quickly, so I finished the painting in three sessions.

Here’s the result!

Now the cats are sitting under the tree, and the candies are hanging on it. The crafts turned out very bright and sturdy, though there’s still 250 grams of dough left behind the scenes, and I have no idea what to do with it now…

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If you’ve ever made crafts using a similar recipe, feel free to share them if possible! And if your country or family has other traditional recipes for such creations, please let me know — I’d be very interested to read about them.