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| Hand-Painted Beads |
You can make a modeling dough that is fine enough in texture to create your own hand-painted beads. This recipe is fast and easy and best of all it can either be air dried or hardened in your oven at a low setting.
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Materials Required |
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 3/4 cup tepid water
- Up to 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil
| | Instructions |
| Measure the flour and the salt into a bowl. Stir the dry ingredients together and make a well in the center. Combine the wet ingredients. Gradually add the wet into the dry. When the dough is pliable empty it out onto a flour covered table. Knead the dough as you would for bread. After ten minutes the dough should be workable. It should be very pliable with some elasticity. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes in a plastic bag. Your dough is now ready to be molded.
Pinch off a small amount of dough and keep the rest in the plastic bag. This dough dries out very quickly so you have to keep it covered.
Roll the dough into a ball or elongated shape. Pierce a toothpick through it.
Drying - You can either air dry the beads or you can oven dry them. To air dry try placing the pieces on top of a piece of plastic canvas which is place over a wire rack. This allows air to flow beneath the beads. Place this outside in the sun or over a radiator. Turn the beads over halfway through the process. If you are drying out in the sun make sure you bring the beads in at night as the moisture will soften it. This will take several days.
Oven drying is a lot faster. You must set your oven on a low temperature approximately between 100 degrees to 175 degrees. This takes between 8-12 hours depending on the thickness. Turn the beads over half way through the drying process. If your dough starts to rise, the oven is too hot, turn it down and pierce the beads lightly with a pin to release the air.
After the beads have dried, paint them either using watercolor or acrylic paint. Watercolor creates a a very translucent look. You can use waterproof markers. After the paint has dried, seal with a varnish.
This recipe is very adaptable, you can roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Try manually cutting the dough by making short stabbing cuts with a knife then smoothing out the edges. |
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