Monday, September 22, 2008

Create Your Own Salt Ceramic Decorative Ball

Sometimes it’s fun to paint on something other than paper or canvas. This project gives you the chance to do just that.

Supplies Needed:

Salt
Corn Starch
Water
Measuring Cup
Wooden Spoon
___

Wax Paper
Mod Podge
Paint
Paintbrush
Newspaper (optional)

First, ask an adult to make the salt ceramic for you. It takes fewer than five minutes to make. The adult should mix 1 cup of table salt, ½ cup of corn starch, and ¾ cup of water in a sauce pan. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. The mixture will get sticky and quickly form a ball. At this point, remove it from the heat. Wait a few minutes for it to cool enough to handle, then kneed the ball to soften it. At this point, the salt ceramic can be wrapped in wax paper and placed in an air tight container for storage, or molded into a sculpture.

Cover your work space with wax paper. As the salt ceramic dries, it gets sticky but it will not stick to wax paper. To make a ball, crumple up a piece of newspaper and mold salt ceramic around it. If you want to use your decorative ball as a paper weight, just roll out a ball without newspaper stuffing. If you don’t use newspaper, the ball will take longer to dry.

Salt ceramic is just like hardening clay. You can mold any shape so feel free to use your creativity.
Allow your ball to dry. This will take several days.

When the ball has dried, brush a layer of Mod Podge over it to seal it. Mod Podge dries quickly. You’ll only need to wait about 5 minutes before you can paint.
Choose colors and paint any pattern or picture you want.

Finally, when the paint has dried, brush another coat of Mod Podge over your creation.

Enjoy!

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