Testoplasty is a new fascinating type of handicraft, which involves the creation of a wide variety of paintings from salt dough. If earlier this type of needlework was intended to develop fine motor skills in children, today it is a full-fledged art form. Adult needlewomen create whole pictures from this material.

Why did dough modeling become so popular? There are a number of reasons for this:

1. It is not expensive. If any other handicraft, be it embroidery, knitting or drawing, requires the purchase of high-quality tools and materials, then this handicraft requires only flour and salt;
2. It doesn't require any special skills. It is not at all necessary to graduate from an art history department or a sculpture school to create masterpieces;
3. It develops. Modeling contributes to the development of thinking, imagination, the ability to compose a composition;
4. This improves spatial thinking. With the help of sculpting, you can learn how to convey shapes, proportions and colors.

Dough molding has long been popular. The history of this handicraft is deeply rooted in history. Even with the appearance of the first flour (about 6,000 years ago), people began to sculpt various figures from finished dough, and later they became the first amulets, along with herbs and stones.

Very often people received an equilibrium price in gold for a skillfully molded amulet or figurine.

Today, such paintings are very popular among craftswomen and needlewomen. They usually consist of a canvas (a sheet of cardboard, canvas, etc.) on which various paintings are molded. They are not flat, but voluminous due to the texture of the material. Products are painted or varnished to decorate interiors later. Testoplasty is a full-fledged art form that you should definitely try to do!

Salted dough recipe for sculpting a picture

Prepare salty dough for sculpting is very simple. All that is needed is:

• flour - 0.2 kg;
• salt - 0.2 kg;
• water - 125 ml;
• vegetable oil - 1 tbsp. l.

If you need to get a multi-colored product right away, then a dye that dissolves in water must be added to this recipe.

There are two mixing methods. Both are good and personal preference:

1. The salt is mixed with flour until smooth (if desired, fluffed with a blender), and then water is gradually poured into this mixture. The dye is water soluble;
2. Salt and dye dissolve in water, and then flour is gradually introduced into it.

The resulting mass must be kneaded hard. First, the dough must be brought to such a state in which it will not stick to the hands, and then beaten against a wooden or iron surface. If it starts to crumble, then you need to add water, and if it sticks to your hands - flour. After kneading, it is very desirable to keep the finished material in the bag in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. And after that you can start sculpting.

Simple painting "Cat" from salt dough with your own hands

This work is done on a wooden background or on a cutting board. Transferring the picture is not required, so the work is done on the basis of the sketch.

You will need:

• background or board;
• watercolors and gouache paints;
• paint brushes;
• salty dough;
• PVA glue";
• colorless varnish;

Master class with step by step photos:

How to make a painting with flowers from salt dough

"Daisies in a vase" - this is the name of this picture, and it is done quite simply.

You will need:

• cling film or cellophane;
• salty dough;
• cardboard sheet or wooden plank for the background;
• matter (optional) for the background;
• toothpick;
• brush;
• nail scissors;
• water.

Process step by step with photo:

1. Salted dough is prepared according to standard recipe and is divided into three parts: one larger - for flowers, the second - for the base for flowers and the third - for a vase. A cling film or cellophane is spread on a wooden background;
2. A vase is formed from a piece of dough. It can be whatever the needlewoman wants. Here it is formed from 3 parts: a base is made of a large piece (it is rolled out and formed in the form of a vase), a stand and a handle are made of two smaller pieces;
3. A drawing was made on a vase with a knife;
4. Then flowers are made;
5. An oval rolls out from the second part and is located on top of the vase - flowers will be attached to it;
6. A small piece of dough rolls into a slightly flat ball;
   
7. With manicure scissors it is “cut” into petals;
   
8. Then, using the thumb and forefinger, the "square" petal is slightly compressed and shaped. These steps must be repeated with each petal;
   
9. The result is voluminous petals;
   
10. With the help of a toothpick, veins are made on the petals;
    
11. The place where the flower should be located is slightly moistened with water and the flower is laid there. It needs to be lightly pressed down using the back of the brush;
12. Roll a ball out of a small piece of dough - this will be the core of the flower;
    
13. The core must also be slightly pressed down;
    
14. And slightly poke the petals at the junction with the base with the sharp end of a toothpick so that they connect;
    
15. Repeat this procedure with all the flowers;
16. As soon as the painting is ready, it must be left to air dry until completely solidified;
17. As soon as the dough dries, turn the picture down with the dough on a soft surface and gently peel off the film;
18. The background is pasted over with a coarse cloth (burlap, linen) on both sides;
19. Spread glue on the back surface of the work (i.e. dough). It is best to take the "Dragon". And, without lifting the product, attach it to the fabric. Those. the oiled surface itself adheres to the fabric;
20. Then the work is painted or varnished at will;
21. After the paint has dried, you can attach a frame to the background.

How to make a picture with a basket of salt dough

The painting is done on a large sheet of parchment paper - it lags behind more easily after drying, without spoiling the painting itself. You can also use cling film or to perform work on a ready-made background.

Would need:

• ingredients for the dough or ready-made salty dough;
• parchment paper - 1 sheet;
• sharp knife or stacks;
• garlic press;
• paper basket and leaves template;
• paints and brushes;
• water for wetting;
• cloves - 3-4 pcs.

DIY painting master class:

Several useful tips for needlewomen:

Cooking with salted dough is fun. Children of all ages can be involved in this activity and it will become not only an entertaining leisure, but also useful!

For another guide to making flowers from salt dough, see the following video.

Among lovers of needlework, salted dough has long been used successfully as a material for creating flat and volumetric sculptures. In general, probably all children from an early age traditionally love modeling; many creatively oriented adults are also not averse to working with plasticine. However, for a number of reasons, plasticine is not always suitable for children, and for babies who can swallow it, it is generally undesirable, unless under the supervision of adults, which does not always work out. But salty dough is a wonderful, affordable and practically harmless material. In addition, it has a number of features, it is interesting to work with it, so molding from salt dough occupies a separate place among popular hobbies.

Let's make some salty dough

The tempting and indisputable advantage of this material is its availability: the dough is prepared independently, in the right amount, and all the few ingredients are available in almost any kitchen - in extreme cases, you can run to the nearest grocery store, while somehow you will not have to spend much money.

Craft Salt Dough Recipe

Mix 200 grams of table salt with 2 glasses wheat flour and 2 tablespoons of starch, add about ¾ cup water and a tablespoon sunflower oil... All this is good to knead. Correct dough for modeling, it does not crumble and does not stick to the hands, it takes well and keeps the shape given to it. During the preparation of the dough, its structure can be adjusted by adding (in small portions) water or flour, depending on whether it is too thick or thin dough it turns out.

Starch, by the way, is not an obligatory component - it is more needed to create volumetric relief figures, although many add it constantly, regardless of what they are going to sculpt.
After the dough is cooked and molded well, put it in a plastic bag and place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

In contact with

Over the years, testoplasty professionals have reached such heights that their products can be safely placed on a par with plaster or clay figurines, panels and small sculptures.

The material is also unique in that even an unintelligent two-year-old child can start sculpting. Crafts from the dough only at first glance seem like a funny pampering or a childish activity. If interest in them does not fade with age, you can learn how to create serious large-scale works that will decorate houses or even museum exhibitions for more than a dozen years.

The uniqueness of the material

Before moving on to the practical aspect of testoplasty, it should be explained why, in fact, this natural material is so unique that it managed to attract the attention and interest of dozens of novice and experienced molders.

The uniqueness of salted dough (namely, this type is used) consists of several positions:

1. Profitability. If you take one kilogram of ready-made dough and the same amount by volume of not the most expensive plasticine, the first one will cost several times cheaper.
2. Availability. High-quality plasticine or various kits for children's creativity are not only expensive, but not always available in stores. And water, salt, flour can always be found in any family or in the nearest trade booth.
3. Environmental friendliness. Modern materials for sculpting contain a huge amount of substances that, to put it mildly, are not entirely useful not only for children, but also for adults. And naturalness and safety home test unconditional one hundred percent. Therefore, parents can absolutely not worry, looking at the hands and faces of babies soiled with mass.
4. Durability. Ready-made figurines and crafts, if dried properly, will last for more than a dozen years. But plasticine can float, burn out and just fall apart.
5. Aesthetic appeal. Salted dough crafts, masterfully made in different techniques, painted and varnished, look amazing, spectacular, bright and very stylish.
6. A variety of recipes, modeling techniques. The dough can be made different ways, as well as making a craft. It can be a toy, figurine, sculpture, panel, painting, bouquet or even a vase of flowers. And if you use additional decor (beads, ribbons, fur, etc.), you get a rather complex composition belonging to the class of bioceramics.

Salted dough crafts, masterfully made in different techniques, painted and varnished, look amazing, spectacular, bright and very stylish

Based on all that has been said, it becomes clear why the popularity of the test is only growing. And if you are interested in dough plastic, we will tell you how to prepare the original salted mass.

Dough preparation

The more pliable and plastic the initial mass is, the easier and easier it will be to work with it, the more detailed the figure is worked out. And compliance is the correct kneading and strict observance of proportions. There are a lot of ways to prepare edible "plasticine", and every housewife will probably choose the best one for herself over time. Here is the one that is considered the most popular.

The more pliable and plastic the initial mass is, the easier and easier it will be to work with it, the more detailed the figure is worked out

If you need salted dough for making crafts, the recipe will be as follows: you need to take a pound of wheat flour (be sure top grade), 200 ml of unboiled ice water, 200 g of extra salt.

Knead the dough thoroughly, until smooth without lumps and breaks. It is then that the finished products will retain their appearance and integrity for a very long time, and sculpting will be very simple. Such material is obedient and will quickly embody any creative idea of ​​a child or adult. Besides, it's ... edible.

Attention! If the young creator wants to send a ready-made bear, bunny or strawberry into his mouth, the parent will only have to smile: there will be no harm from this.

Correct drying and staining

If the ingredients were verified with Swiss precision, the dough succeeded, and the process of creating a work of art was completed, this does not mean that it will be possible to preserve it for many years. For finished work you still need to properly dry or, as some say, bake. Let's make a reservation right away: microwaves, solar window sills, hot radiators, open balconies and superheated greenhouses are not suitable for this! If you leave the figurine just on the table, for example, for a day, it will be able to dry out only by ... a millimeter, which means that it will soon deform and fall apart.

The test needs heat treatment(by the way, like firing clay), and with strict adherence to the temperature and duration of baking

The dough needs heat treatment (by the way, like firing clay), and with strict adherence to the temperature and duration of baking. However, the size of the object also matters: if it is a large figurine, it will take longer to dry, and a small one will dry a little faster.

The finished masterpieces should be placed in the oven in a baking dish, which must be covered with foil. At a minimum temperature of 75 ° C, it takes an hour to dry the product, at 10 ° C - half an hour, at 120 and 150 - 30 minutes. During this time, the figures need to be periodically rotated, shifted from one side to the other, so that the baking is uniform.

Advice! If in a hand-made edible figurine there is a decor of rhinestones, beads, beads, you should not set the temperature above 120 ° C.

The dried object must cool down, and only then can it be painted. It is better to take gouache or acrylic for this. The choice of colors and painting techniques remains with the author. You can go the other way: color the dough itself when kneading, using factory food colorings.

Colored masterpieces must be covered with colorless varnish, preferably in two layers. Any nail composition will do. And then the work will not fade and fade for a very, very long time.

Colored masterpieces must be covered with colorless varnish, preferably in two layers

Crafts for a child 2-3 years old

The versatility of the test lies in the fact that it is suitable for serious masters with experience, both adolescents and toddlers, who, with its help, in a playful way, develop creative inclinations, attention, perseverance, and fine motor skills. Naturally, two-, three-year-olds a priori will not be able to create something large and complex. Therefore, you need to start with elementary, understandable characters and objects.

Tactile contact is very important for children, they always want to touch and touch everything

Tactile contact is very important for children, they always want to touch and touch everything. Therefore, at the first stage, let the baby just hold it, remember the mass in the pens.

• funny caterpillars, snails, bows, numbers, vegetables will come out of the “sausages” rolled with a rolling pin or by hand;
• from balls of different sizes, you can, smeshariki, koloboks, little men, especially if you add extraneous decor;
• from flour cubes, you can fold a wall, a pyramid, a house, or you can write letters of the alphabet on them and add the name of the child, the simplest words;
• if you roll out the dough into a pancake, you can squeeze out funny faces on it with different objects, lay out simple pictures, figures, silhouettes with multi-colored beans, pasta;
• from the same pancake, you can cut ready-made figures with cookie cutters.

With age and acquired skills, the child will be able to do something more ambitious.

With age and acquired skills, the child will be able to do something more ambitious.

Crafts for preschool children

After 4 years of age, the child may already be bored with adding cubes and balls. Something more complicated is required here. An older child can be asked to make pictures from the test.

Let him first draw on a small piece of paper what he wants. Then this image will turn into three-dimensional, which on final stage child and paint.

Important! One cannot do without the help of an adult, but at 4-5 years old the child will have more independence.

Pictures can be very different: simple landscapes, animals, flowers, nature. If a holiday is approaching, you can make such a picture as a gift. After painting, the craft must be varnished and hung on the wall. This will be a visual reason for the baby to be proud of himself.

Six-year-olds are already able to perform complex, voluminous compositions, especially if their modeling experience is 2-3 years. Preschoolers have enough patience and skills to make small sculptures, animal figurines, whole flower vases or fruit baskets. Fans of cartoons or superhero films can easily sculpt their favorite hero or a whole scene from a movie. Many people are able to spend more than one day on work and independently complete the entire creative process from creating a sketch to its implementation.

Preschoolers have enough patience and skills to perform small sculptures, animal figurines, whole flower vases or fruit baskets

The older the child becomes, the more ambitious and complex the work will be. Choosing salted dough for sculpting crafts, usually young creators simply gush with ideas.

However, viewing photos on the Internet can not only spur their imagination, but also open up new ways, techniques of work, unusual colors, teach how to use third-party decor, expand the creative horizon and, possibly, turn bioceramics classes into a lifelong business.

Sculpting is a great way to develop fine motor skills in children. However, kids love to taste everything, so traditional modeling materials, like clay or plasticine, are often not suitable for practice. Exists great alternative- salty dough: it is very easy to sculpt from it, it is much softer and more pliable than the same plasticine, at the same time, it is absolutely safe for the child.

Any product can be made from this material. Small children (from one and a half years old) can, under your guidance, try to create simple figurines from salt dough, and an older child can try any crafts, souvenirs or toys that only imagination and skill are capable of.

How to make salty dough?

On top of all the advantages of such a sculpting material, it is also very affordable, as it can be quickly made in your kitchen.

There are many recipes for making salty dough, so everyone has the opportunity to choose the most convenient and simple one for themselves.

Here's one way:

• take a glass of salt (about 200 g), add 2 glasses of flour, and diluting with water (more than half a glass), knead the dough;
• you will determine the degree of its readiness along the way: if the dough sticks to your hands and stretches too much, add a little more flour, and if it crumbles, then there is not enough water;
• try rolling a ball and making several indentations in it ( ready dough it will keep its shape well without blurring);
• when mixing, it is recommended to add a little (a tablespoon) of vegetable oil;
• add 2 tablespoons of starch to sculpt relief figures;
• wrap the well-kneaded mass with polyethylene and refrigerate for several hours;
• toys made from salted dough can be painted ready-made, or you can immediately prepare a colored dough (make in several separate containers and add food colors when kneading, instant coffee, beetroot or carrot juice, acrylic or gouache paints, etc.

You can watch special master classes if you are going to sculpt for the first time.

The purpose of modeling lessons for children should be to develop interest in this art, to familiarize themselves with all the properties and capabilities of the material: the dough can be torn, crumpled, flattened, rolled, crumbled, dried. Teach your child to come up with plots, make toys or figurines of acting characters for them, combine them into whole large compositions. This will help you not only develop and improve the fine motor skills of children, but will also develop their imagination, imagination, and speech.

We sculpt simple crafts with kids

Sculpt should be on a special sculpting board or baking sheet. Also prepare a small rolling pin to roll out the dough, a brush (you will sometimes have to wet the dough with water), stacks - sticks for working with plasticine or dough, other details, depending on the direction of your work (paints, molds, decorations, etc.).

If you are just starting to work with a small child, choose the simplest schemes and master classes so that it is easy and interesting for children to sculpt products.

First, you can do something, demonstrating this to the child, then perform actions with his hand, and then let him try to create a toy from salt dough with his own hands.

Together with the kid, come up with a fairy tale about your character. For example, it is very easy to make a cute little caterpillar or even her whole family, and then play with them.

Show your child how to make a caterpillar: you need to pinch off small pieces of dough and roll balls of different sizes from them.

For the head of the product, you will need a large ball, and for the body, several smaller parts. The final look of the craft depends on how many balls you get, and what diameter they will be.

Then you can connect all the balls to each other. To make the elements stick better to each other, moisten them with water at the joints.

The muzzle of the caterpillar can be drawn or dazzled, and the antennae can be made from cut matches.

Now the product needs to be dried. Some people prefer to do it in natural conditions. This method will take you about 3-4 days. Also, figurines made of salted dough can be dried in the oven: if it was preheated to 55-80 ° C, then you will need to keep the product there on a baking sheet with parchment paper about an hour, and if you put the figurines in a cold oven, then set the temperature to 150 ° C and, after drying a little, leave the crafts in the oven until it cools.

When the toy is dry, paint it with your child. This can be done with gouache, acrylics, or watercolors.

In the same way, other toys are very simply created - octopuses, snakes, cats, fish, birds, vegetables and fruits. You can cut cardboard blanks, and then circle them already on the dough.

Also, for little children, a very simple master class on making figurines from salt dough as Christmas tree decorations will be available.

Prepare several colored dough pieces.

Roll them out well, and using a variety of cookie cutters, cut out the shapes you need.

Use a tube or stick to make holes in the figures so that they can then be hung by a string or ribbon on the tree.

If you make a lot of holes, then you get real fishnet figures.

Products can also be decorated with beads (only with plastic it will not be possible to dry them in the oven), various cereals, buttons, shells, pieces of glass beads, etc. Sprinkle the finished toy with sparkles (on a layer of glue or varnish).

Figures painted with permanent markers or decorated with all kinds of stamps (for children's creativity, any texture) also look very beautiful.

As a memorable home souvenir, you can make prints of the child's feet and hands, and on the back, sign how old the baby was.

Making more complex toys

There are master classes that show that you can create more complex toys, figures or even whole compositions with your own hands. For example, try to make a cute hedgehog or the whole hedgehog family with older children.

Since you will already be working on a volumetric figure from salt dough, you will need some kind of ball to create the body of a hedgehog. You can take wood, plastic or even foil, the main thing is that it is very dense.

Wrap it well with dough so that there are no holes anywhere.

The eyes and nose of a hedgehog can be made from dough or use any available means (for example, large peas).

With the help of nail scissors, form needles on the back of the hedgehog (do row by row in a checkerboard pattern).

You can also make fruit for your forest dweller to carry on his back.

Then you should dry the hedgehog and decorate it. Cover the item with clear nail polish to prevent the paint from fading and appearance figurines did not deteriorate over time.

In the same way, you can make a lamb, an owl, and any other voluminous toy.

Master classes will even help you create whole pictures from salted dough, which will become not only an excellent decoration for your home, but also a wonderful original souvenir for a gift. It is better to sculpt pictures on fabric, foil or painted cardboard. When the craft is completely dry, paint and varnish it.

In addition, you will need foil, paints, brushes, water, colorless varnish, toothpicks and any decorative gadgets to decorate and complement the image (ribbons, buttons, beads, feathers, eyes, etc.).

Making dough for modeling at home

My daughter eagerly participates not only in modeling and painting, but also in kneading dough.
For cooking, take 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of salt. Salt should be finely ground, optimally Extra, not iodized.

Mixing the ingredients

We mix salt and flour and, adding water in small portions, knead a rather tight dough, similar in consistency to dumplings. Water needs a little less than a glass. You can add 1 tbsp for better elasticity. l. vegetable oil.

Flour for dough

After kneading, put the dough in a bag and leave it in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.

Kneading the dough

The finished dough does not stick to hands, easily wrinkles, keeps its shape. It can be dyed in bulk, that is, add the paint directly to the dough and knead. It can successfully replace soft plasticine. We paint ready-made crafts.

Interesting ideas for modeling with a child

In addition to directly sculpting various figures, salted dough can be used to make paintings. For example, my daughter and I made a small picture on the theme "Pushkin's Tales."

Step 1

They came up with a drawing and painted a small board with blue gouache.

Step 1. Decorated the board and drew a picture

Step 2

The details of the drawing were molded from salt dough and glued to the board with PVA glue.

Step 2. We sculpt the parts from the dough and glue them to the blue board
Step 2. Add details

Step 3

The finished picture was dried at room temperature for 3 days.

Step 3. Drying the painting for 3 days

Step 4

Painted and covered with clear varnish.

Step 4. We paint with paints Step 4. We cover with varnish

For little guys, you can offer interesting option work with the test.

• Roll out the dough into a layer , cut figurines with cookie cutters or plasticine, dry.
• Repaint ... Such crafts can be done by my son at 2.5 years old.

You can make a garden of stones and other "values": on a cake of salt dough, artistically place finds from a walk - pebbles, leaves, twigs.

How my daughter and I made crafts from dough

One of our recent crafts is Antarctica. Often we get ideas from books about sculpting from, but there are some differences in working with the dough. For example, you don't have to sculpt parts of different colors separately, because the dough is painted in what color you need.

Also, when sculpting volumetric figures, foil is used as a frame, it does not allow the figure to "float" while it is drying, and the drying process itself is accelerated.

Sculpt a penguin

You will need 5 blanks-balls:

• 1 large - for the torso;
• 2 small - for the wings;
• 2 even less - for the legs.

Roll the balls
Roll out dough balls

Place a lump of foil in the center of the large ball and give it the shape of a pointed pear. We roll out the blanks of the wings and legs into cone-shaped sausages and flatten them. We bend the blank of the body to get a head with a beak.

Shaping the torso

We connect the wings and legs with the body, glue the eyes from small balls.
We put the penguin on an ice floe: we rolled out a layer of dough and cut out a circle-hole with a glass.

We collect the penguin and put it on the bed

Dry at room temperature for about a week.

Do not put figures on a battery, speed up the process with a hairdryer, this can lead to cracking.

It can be dried in the oven at a temperature of 50-150 degrees for several hours.

Sculpting a seal

We are also preparing 5 blanks: the body and legs. As a frame, we use a strip of foil folded several times.

We form balls of different sizes

Give the body the shape of an oblong cake and place the foil in the middle. We roll the foil into the dough sausage.

Roll out a large ball into a cake and put foil on it. From small balls we make a nose and eyes.
Collecting the seal

Can be dried.

We have sculpted fish as an additional decoration.

Making a fish

We paint the dried products with gouache and watercolors and cover with transparent varnish (you can use acrylic art, or you can use ordinary wood varnish).

We paint the composition and cover it with varnish

The varnish has a decorative and protective function, and makes the colors brighter, and also prevents the figures from getting their hands dirty, generally prolonging their life.

Any joint creativity with children is exciting. Modeling not only develops fine motor skills, but also awakens the imagination of the child and parent.

I assure you that during the joint gatherings at the craft, you will learn a lot about your child a lot of new and often unexpected.