The body of the peacock is created out of salt dough. We baked it the toaster oven for about 10 min. The base is plaster with pipe cleaners (about 1/8th of a pipe cleaner for each leg). After baking they poked two holes in the bottom of the body with a pipe cleaner..then placed it on the base. They painted the body & base with liquid watercolor(suggest a clear coat before putting feathers and such on). Then they added feathers, gems, and eyes. I was worried at first...the salt dough was very soft, we had to let them set up for awhile before placing them in the toaster oven. They ended up turning out great though. Salt dough is an alternative if you do not have a kiln...or the budget for clay.
I know the pictures are a little blurry....I was rushed as everyone was packing up to leave.
These are great!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a fairly new art teacher and haven't worked with plaster. I imagine you put the body with pipe cleaners into the plaster before it sets?? When you bake the salt dough it is still soft enough that you can stick in the pipe cleaner legs? What age group did this? These are fun and colorful. I hope to do these with one of my classes before the year is out.
ReplyDelete@missart Peacock-a-Palooza was an art teacher work shop..so grownups made these. I poured plaster into the cups..let it set for a minute or so..then put the pipe cleaner legs in. The salt dough is done later...baked...and then put two holes in the bottom to then stick onto the base.
ReplyDeleteI know this article is from over a year ago, but I'm hoping you still check the comments. I want to make crabs with a preschool class with salt dough, but I wanted to use pipe cleaners for legs. Would you just bake the bodies for 10 minutes to start the hardening process and then add the legs? Also, any idea what temperature they should be baked at?
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