Better than salt dough Rune Stones

How to Make Salt Dough Runes

Now heres an interesting topic.... Salt dough... well I think this is better than salt dough anyhow :)

For those of you who would like to get creative, this is a fabulous idea. I have been searching online for some runes  the last few days but I haven't really found anything that I liked or that I was drawn to. I then decided to make some from different materials and here commenced my experimentation. 

This is my first attempted batch of runes and it 'feels' so much better as I am the one that created them. When you are working with your natural materials, remember as you are crafting you are embedding your personal energies into your work. So for the rune 'Algiz' the symbol of protection, envision all the protective forces around you whilst you are working to create it and so on and so forth for each one that you create. 

Now lets commence with what you need 
(You can increase or decrease the ingredient amounts to suit your needs):

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of corn flour
1 cup of Bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cups of water

(you can add food colouring,,micas, herbs etc at this point if you wish, but I chose not to so I can have a blank canvas to paint on.)

Instructions:
Mix all your ingredients together into a pan, stir with a spoon to make sure you get all the lumps out, then place the pan over a low heat. 

Keep stirring until it starts to thicken. This should happen pretty quickly. When it starts to resemble a little like potato mash, take it off the heat, scoop it out with a spoon and place in a glass bowl to cool down. Cover with a damp cloth and let it sit.

Once cooled, there you have it! Pliable white dough that you can work with. 

Next part; sprinkle your work surface and rolling pin with a little corn flour so that your dough doesn't stick and kneed it a little. Roll it out to your desired thickness, then start cutting out your shapes. 

Once this is done, you can start to add your detail, you can make further patterns with the left over dough or you can embed with stones, beads, twigs, feathers, stamps or whatever you choose.

 

Most salt dough recipes call for baking in the oven at a high temperature for 2 hours, but I don't like the way the dough looks afterwards (It browns a little,and the shapes don't always stay true to form. I wanted mine to be pure white, and for them to keep their shape). So what I did as I made two batches at the same time (because I ran out of room in my dehydrator lol), I left half to dry naturally for two weeks, on a tray lined with some baking paper, and placed it on top of my fridge, (you must remember to turn your objects every couple of days so both sides can air dry properly). Or if you are like me and are a little impatient you can use your dehydrator on medium heat, until your creations are dry. I find the heat of a dehydrator isn't as harsh as the oven, your creations don't turn brown and don't expand like a cake when drying. Another plus to using the dehydrator is that if you are decorating with beads or feathers, these items wont melt or burn.

Now your creations have dried, you can choose to leave them as they are, or you can paint them with further detail. Once painted, again let it air dry, then either seal the colour in with a varnish, spray varnish, or if you don't have those to hand clear nail polish will also do. 

So now you have the basics, go and have fun.. experiment! See what you can come up with!! I would love to see what you all can do! Post your creations below in the comments if you can.

Blessings
~Opal Storm )O(