We’ve had several craft project disasters this week.
First there was the attempt at making salt dough with regular flour that made me sick. (Evidently breathing in gluten is worse than eating it for people with gluten sensitivities. Who knew?!) Above it as far as we got before the whole thing went into the trash.
Then we tried to make a gluten-free salt dough with cornstarch and that turned out to be a giant mess. We even followed a recipe, but to no avail! After we had tripled the amount of cornstarch and salt called for in the recipe in a last ditch attempt to save it, the whole thing suddenly turned into a feta cheese-like consistency and we knew the project was over.
I thought the whole activity was a disaster, however our daughter loved every moment of the messy, water play. Half-success?
Our next less-than-successful project: we tried to reveal secret messages (written in white crayon on paper) with water color paints. That sort of worked.
Unfortunately it wasn’t enough of a success to merit it’s own blog post or a place in our daughter’s new room.
Good thing we’re all about the process here in our house, rather than the final product.
Sigh.
So, how’s your week going?
oh no! i must say, those do all look like fun to do, regardless of the results.. :)
(the paintings remind me of how we used to dye easter eggs – first writing messages / drawing pictures with a clear wax crayon, then dyeing the eggs!)
I think you have inadvertently discovered the incredibly interesting and fun second-grade science substance known as “ooblek.” Cornstarch + water (+ fun food coloring) in just the right consistency yields a substance that (1) can be poured right out of a flat baking pan like batter, and yet (2) turns chalky and crumbly when squeezed in the hand. Key Learning Concept: Is “ooblek” a solid or a liquid? Just think how much wonderful science has been developed by funky “errors”! Miss Leyba is clearly on the cutting edge.
Well, I didn’t know what salt dough was at first- I admit it. But… I did want to share that at Shayna’s school they used to play with a corn starch/water mixture. It would feel solid, but then when you lifted it up in your hand it kind of “melted” into a liquid. Very fun to play with, and you just keep adding water as it dries up.