Salt dough not hardening

hampshirebabe

I made some salt dough to make christmas tree decorations, but they're not staying hard. I did a cup of flour, a cup of salt, a tblspn of oil and ½ cup of water, then baked them at 50 for 6 hours as instructed, but they weren't dry so turned it up to 100 and they dried out ok. But now a few days later they've gone a bit soft again. What did I do wrong, or do to stop it from happening? Should they be varnished quite soon after they've dried? I want to do 2 sides of a christmas tree, with a hole in one side to put a photo of my daughter in.
Mary
Love the idea of a wreath on another thread, if I can get the dough sorted I'll try a couple of them.
Mary

Steph998

Well, I never use oil in my models. Just flour, salt and cold water. I also bake them on a really low heat, for a very, long time...it sort of 'fires' them. (Small single pieces need less. I would bake a whole batch of wreaths overnight in an electric oven.) If they sound hollow when tapped, they are ready. If they sound dull and doughey...they are not! Paint them and seal with varnish as soon as possible.

They shouldn't go soft so soon...do you have them near steam in the kitchen or bathroom? They must be kept bone dry at all times, and that includes when you store them in the loft! If they get even slightly damp, they very soon go back to their original state.

hampshirebabe

How much salt to flour do you use? Is it about even, would that make a difference do you think?

nanokitten

recipy sounds about right. Salt dough takes forever to dry out, it probably seemed dry on the outside but was still damp in the middle, I'd pop them on the radiators for a few days to really dry out, then paint and varnish.

Did you uses a cooling rack after they came out the oven as not doing so would make them soggy underneath?

Only other possibility is that the salt is causing them to absorb moisture if your house is very humid, in which case I'd dry on the radiators for afew days then varnish to seal them.

Steph998

nanokitten wrote: »

Salt dough takes forever to dry out

Have to say, I don't agree with this at all! If baked for the correct time in the oven, they can be totally dried and ready to paint and varnish. (I used to have a little production line going in my kitchen when I ran my own little business making them, and my models were made, baked overnight and painted and varnished the next day. Still got a lot of my models and they are all as hard as the day they were made!) .

Salt dough only takes forever if you air dry them.