Actually, the name is a bit deceptive. Salt clay is mostly made up of flour and water, and salt to keep it from molding.

The idea is salt+flour+water= clay.

Simple, no? Actually it was pretty easy.

I got my recipe here, halved it, and proceeded to ignore measured proportion anyway, so I learned a few things during the process.

I don’t have process photos, sorry, but I do have a link to a really cool project that gave me the kick in the pants to actually tell you all about my salt clay adventure.

Just discovered this blog. Totally enamored.

Here’re the results of my salt clay experiments.

I made a few buttons, a whole bunch of larger two holed beads, and some teardrops. I plan to paint some of them, and turn them into jewelry at the earliest convenience (eg. after the show I’m working on goes up this weekend)

Anyway, a few tips about salt clay. You need a lot less water than you think you do. Add it a little bit at a time. I’m not good at that, in baking or in anything else but I learned my lesson with salt clay. To get the right consistency I had to add a lot more flour.

The third thing I have to say is that you can let your salt clay air dry! I did (lack of oven in my flat right now, and I didn’t want to usurp my grandmother’s oven for two hours in the middle of August when she’s particularly susceptible to heat) and it seems to have worked out just fine, but it took a few days. I’ve given it about a week and a half by now because I haven’t gotten around to using the beads I made yet, and they are doing just fine.

Salt clay is basically dough, and it will react as such. Too much water makes it sticky. More flour/salt= less sticking to hands. Again, this is a lesson I shouldn’t have needed to learn, but I’m fundamentally bad at following proportion directions.

Anyway, I hope that helps anyone out there who was wondering about salt clay. Cheapest clay I’ve ever encountered, so you might see a lot more of it on this blog, especially if I make more of these kinds of things.