Salt dough

[laurouski]

Hi, everyone - thought there might be somebody on here who could help me with a problem I'm having.

I have to make a salt dough head for art coursework, but I'm having a LOT of trouble with it.
I made it using 1 cup of salt for every 3 cups of flour, and just added water til it was the right consistency.

However, because it's quite a large, heavy ball of dough, every time I put it down the bottom becomes flat. Like I said, it needs to be a head so the back/bottom has to be rounded. I've now made it the smallest it can possibly be without becoming impossible to add facial details, but it still seems to be too heavy.

I am going to place it on salt dough shoulders, but I really want to get the face down now because it will be very difficult to do if the head's not flat. Also, when I do put it on shoulders I'm certain the chin area will just sink into the shoulders.
I moulded a nose last night, but when I checked it this morning it had disappeared - everything seems to be sinking into it like quick-sand!

So would really like to know how I could make it:

A) Easier to scrape details like wrinkles into it (at the moment it sort of crumples up, in the same way you'd expect normal cookie dough to - the tool doesn't glide through smoothly like it would in clay).

B) Stay even slightly rounded underneath!

I've already got annoyed with it and destroyed it once...
Thanks!

[Abigail]

Maybe put more flour in? I know that when making cakes flour makes the mixture thicker.

[Trinity]

Can you make a hollow head? Maybe using a small baloon as a template like you would in paper mache?

I would suggest making the dough softer for better malleability.

http://www.multihobbies.com/saltdough/recipes.htm

An alternative receipe is here ^ , maybe you could try that one?

[laurouski]

Thanks, you guys!

In the end I did make it hollow (stuffed with newspaper underneath a layer of aluminium foil) - why is it things always come to you just after you've decided to ask for help?!

It was still a bit of a pain - it wasn't sticking together very well and by that point my patience was at an all-time low!
But, in the end I just about finished it with the dough I had, and it's in the oven as we speak.
When I put it in it was still a bit bumpy from trying to hold it without leaving marks, and there were still lines around the pieces of dough I'd stuck over the top. I was worried that it was going to stretch and leave gaps where you could see the stuffing or that the added pieces would fall off, but I checked it just now and the lines have diappeared and it's all stuck together quite nicely.
Plus, the kitchen is finally flour-free and spotless!

So, thanks.