środa, 30 października 2013

PAINTING AND LACQUERING SALT DOUGH ;)

Painting salt dough:

In fact, the salt dough can be painted with poster paints or watercolors, but then the dough is in not protected, so after some time it can break down from moisture. These kind of paints unfortunately does not give a professional effect you have using artistic paints such as acrylic. Acrylic paints are more expensive than other, but firstly: they consolidate the salt dough, and the secondly: they give you the desired effect and are really worth to invest in. You can get them in a good paper shop, as well as in art stores.




Acrylics are available not only in standad colors, but also in pearly or metallic, shades of gold, copper and silver. They can be used for finishes. It will give a beautiful effect and glossy finish to our statues.


Where can you get pearly, gold and silver paints?

These paints can be ordered over the internet, but I'd recommend a faster way: art shops, where the colors we are looking for will be available for sure.

Coloring salt dough with dyes or spices you'll find here!

PAINTING TIP: To paint the details, like eyes, use a thin brush with small amount of paint or waterproof fineliner. Unless you use a waterproof pen/fineliner, it can blur when you use the paint and fade over time.

Lacquering salt dough:

Varnishing salt dough is an important issue and should be done with great precision, because the varnish preserves our figure, protects against moisture and color fading when the figure is exposed to the sun. A well-painted and well-dried salt dough will serve longer. 


We paint the figure with acrylic lacquer when it's dry, otherwise the ink may blur. I use and recommend spray, it gives a beautiful and shine effect. Its advantage is that it gets to every place, that may be harder to get to with the brush. You can get it at Leroy Merlin. It dries relatively long, but it's worth to wait, because it makes the surface smooth and shiny. You can apply several layers, but put another only after the previous dries.




I have also heard about the oil paint, which gives the effect of a glass, crystal coating, but I never personally used it. You have to lay it with thin layers, since it needs a lot of timeto dry - about 1.5 day, and do not use the spray paint on it, because they do not match.

REMEMBER: Figures should be protected from moisture, so placing them near the stove is not the best solution because steam will destroy its structure and they will fall apart. Never wipe the dust from figures with a damp cloth, dry only.

wtorek, 29 października 2013

SALT DOUGH RECIPE

RECIPE FOR SALT DOUGH

You can find many recipes for salt dough on the internet, and all of them says to add one cup of flour, a cup of salt, water + additives such as wallpaper adhesive or potato flour, which I was using at the beginning, but the details crumbled in my hands, and when I was able to create them, they cracked in the oven, or a bubble arouse on the figures bottom, which meant that my work went to waste. After many trials and errors I managed to create the perfect proportions, which I'm using from this day, and it makes the details very easy to mold, and figures do not break in the oven.


MY RECIPE FOR SALT DOUGH:
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1/2 cup of salt (larger amount of salt will make the details crumble in your hand)
  • a flat spoon of wallpaper glue
  • a flat tablespoon of corn flour
  • + / - 1/2 cup of warm water: gradually pour hot water all the time kneading, so that the dough will be perfect for creating products.

NOTE: If you accidentally pour too much water, you have to sprinkle the flour until the mass becomes perfect to make the figures.

To color the dough You can use the food dye, which should be poured before mixing with water.





We can also use natural dyes, which should be poured before mixing with water. They may be available in our kitchen, and besides the color they give dough beautiful scent, for example:
  •  cinnamon (gives slightly brown color and a nice smell) 
  • coffee, 
  • cocoa 
  • turmeric (which stains the mass of yellow), 
  • pepper (to mass became red), 
and many other spices that may just fall in your hands.






If you want to get a great flavor without color, we add perfume oil while mixing the dough. I love the rosy angels, the scent last for several days.



The finished dough should be baked in the oven preferably on an aluminum foil, at the beginning with the oven door open at most smallest fire (in my oven it is 125 degrees Celsius). After 30 minutes you can close the door and in about few hours the products should be baked enough to go to the next step, which is painting.

A few of my works: