Wednesday 8 May 2013

Salt dough fossils!

These are so easy and fun to make, my 2 year old and 5 year old had great fun with it the other day!
 

If you want to know how we made ours all you need to do this is my salt dough recipe you can find if you click here, then...

You will need:
  • Some toy dinosaurs
  • An oven
  • Acrylic paints (optional)
  • Plaster of Paris (optional)
  • Vaseline (if you use the plaster of Paris option)

An alternative for a non cook version is play dough which can be bought or you can try the recipe we use here.  Obviously with the non cook version it is not suitable to paint or to use for the plaster of paris.  Still great for very little people who want to get involved.

It's a great activity for all ages to try - I may have even had a go but I'm not telling!

All you need to do is get a hand full of dough work it until it is smooth and place it on a clean table.  Then get your dinosaur figurines. 

Press your dinosaur into the dough so it makes an imprint of your dinosaur.  You may need to try a few times to get the result you want.  When you do put it in the oven on low (we had it on at 75 degrees Celcius) for at least 4 hours.



When they are cool you can then paint them if you like.  If you want to use the plaster of paris you will need to use plenty of vaseline on the dinosaur and then carefully pour the plaster of paris into the mould.  Be careful as the plaster of paris has an exothermic reaction.
 
You can pick up plasster of paris from any good craft store and to make it the right consistency you need 2 parts plaster of paris to 1 part water.  We're hoping to do this bit of it tomorrow as we got our plaster of paris today!

When it is dry you will be able to pull your dinosaur mould out and paint that if you like instead.  Have fun whichever way you decide, perhaps you will try both - that is the great thing about art after all!





 
You don't have to use the whole dinosaur you could try dinosaur foot prints or use toy woolly mammoths or sabretooth tigers.  Great to work in with your history or science projects though!

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