How to make a Nativity Scene from Salt Dough

In 1995 I developed a new interest in salt dough after I found a book in the library and during this time I was also a member of a book club. They had a lovely salt dough crafts book, which I ordered.

For many weeks I whiled away the hours making Christmas gifts and it was during this creative period that I stumbled upon an article in a magazine and the characters for my Nativity Scene was born.

They still have their place underneath the Christmas tree after all these years and I really love them.

When I started my ezi-gifts-galore blog in October 2006, I used them in my first... no, second blogpost and then I had to show and tell about some of the other salt dough items I made in previous years... and for nearly 6 months I ate, slept and breathed salt dough.

Blend 2 cups (500 ml) plain flour and 2 cups (500 ml) fine table salt in a bowl

Mix 1 tbsp (12,5 ml) vegetable oil with 1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm water.
Add 1 tbsp (12,5 ml) wallpaper paste.

(The wall paper paste is optional...
you can also substitute it with white wood glue.)
Stir well.

Add liquid to dry ingredients, stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon...

or use your hands to form a dough

Turn out the dough on to your work surface

Knead the dough

for 10-15 minutes

until it is smooth and pliable

The dough should be reasonably firm so that the models keep their shape

... and you are done, get ready for play time!

Tips:

If the dough appears to be dry, you can add a little water or if it sticks to your hands, add a little more flour.

You can use egg white or water to attach different parts to each other. Use a small brush to make it easier.

Roll tinfoil into balls or shapes as desired, cover with the salt dough and finish shaping. This will speed up baking/drying time and prevent shrinkage as well as big cracks in the salt dough models.

Important:

Keep the salt dough covered in a plastic container or a plastic bag while you are working to prevent it from drying out. Salt dough can easily be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks.

There are no hard or fast rules when it comes to baking of salt dough models. Every article or craft book gives different methods and baking times.

I personally like to bake my salt dough items overnight at a low temperature of 90ºC to 100ºC. You may have to experiment with baking times to suit your oven.

Just remember also, that baking times will depend on the thickness of the items.

Here's a general guideline taken from "Fun Dough" by Brenda Porteous:

There are three methods you can try:
(i) Slow drying at a constant low temperature,
(ii) Medium drying with a gradual increase in
temperature,
(iii) Quick drying at a high temperature.

(i) Slow drying is probably the safest way of preventing the dough from rising or cracking. The oven temperature should be 75-80ºC (170-190ºF), or 50ºC (130ºF) for fan-assisted ovens. Bake for about 12 hours.

(ii) Medium drying is quicker but care must be taken that the models do not rise or crack at the higher temperatures. Bake for 1-2 hours at 75-90ºC (170-200ºF); then 1-2 hours at 100ºC (210ºF); then 1-2 hours at 125ºC (260ºF) and finally 1-2 hours at 150ºC (300ºF).

(iii) Quick drying is only really suitable for small models. Bake them 2-3 hours at 110º-120ºC (230º-250ºF).

Testing: The simplest way is to remove the baking tray from the oven and gently tap the salt dough model with your finger, both back and front. It should sound hollow. If it sounds dull it is still moist inside and should be placed back in the oven.

You can use this basic method for all the people in your nativity scene and then "dress" them as you wish.

To speed up the baking process, it is a good idea to use tinfoil whenever your items are heavy. You can shape the tinfoil and even cover it with rolled out salt dough instead of a ball of dough.

Shape the salt dough around the tinfoil. Smooth the dough with water or use a brush dipped into water. Attach the head to the body with a piece of toothpick. (Also remember to moisten the different body parts where you are going to attach them)

Roll a small ball of salt dough into a sausage shape, cut in half for the arms.
Roll out a bigger ball (quite thinly) and cut out the cape or headdress.
The sleeves are just two rectangles.

Moisten the sleeves with the brush and attach to arms.
Pinch the one side of the arm slightly to fit on the body.

Moisten and attach the arms as shown in the photo.

Drape the cape around the head and body, don't forget to moisten the head and back of the body as well.
The water acts as glue and really helps to keep different parts together.
Use a knife to make the fingers. If you wish, you can use very small balls of dough to make eyes and noses. Why not give Maria a small pearl necklace?

Every girl needs something totally feminine, so this is one way you can use to texturise your salt dough "clothes".

Method to make and twist a salt dough rope or cord like the one on Joseph's head.

Joseph:
Roll some dough into "piping". Cut off two lengths about 38 mm long for the arms. Twist two long lengths for the headdress. Roll out a large piece of dough, cut out two squares for the sleeves and roll it around the arms. Secure the arms to the side of the basic body. Cut a large square for the headdress, with one corner curved and attach that edge to the head. Coil the cord on top of the head.
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Mary:
She is made in the same way as Joseph, but roll out a large piece of dough and cut it into an oval. Drape it over her to form a headdress and cloak.
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Jesus in the manger:
Use a piece of hollowed out sausage-shaped dough for the manger. Make swaddling from an oval shaped rolled out piece of dough with pointed ends. Roll this up and attach a small ball of dough to it for the head. Put into the hollowed-out sausage. Roll four tiny balls from the dough flatten it slightly and attach to bottom of manger.

My version:
Roll out a piece of dough and cut a rectangle about 5cm by 3 cm from it. Roll a ball of dough into a sausage shape and smooth the one side into a ball shape to form the head. It should fit onto the rectangle. Roll out another piece of dough for the blanket and drape it over the body. Use egg white to fix it to the rectangle.
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The Wise Men:
They are made like Joseph, but without arms, since their oval shaped cloaks drape over their shoulders.
The gifts can be cubes, triangles, little dough sausages or any shape you like, on a square cushion.
Secure the cushion by cutting a channel into the cloaks and wedging the "moistened" gift into it. Support the cushion with a small piece of cocktail stick.
The crowns are made from a circle of thick piping with pinched-out points. You can make a turban with a long strip cut from rolled out dough and wound round the head.

The Shepherds
Make them in the same way as Joseph; for a kneeling figure, flatten the body a llittle and bend into an L shape.

Don't you just love my "cool" guy with his sunglasses...?

Many salt dough books advise you to buy a garlic press or a clay gun to make hair, beards and fleece.

I have made numerous salt dough items through the years and I find that a normal kitchen grater work just as well.

If you need long strands of hair, roll the dough into a sausage and grate lengthwise. A ball of dough and short strokes will give shorter strands.

Lift the strands of dough with a flat knife, moisten the piece of dough you want to cover and slowly lay it onto the dough.

Here is my method to cover a sheep in fleece, you can normally leave the sheep as is or paint if you like.

The ox:
Make dough sausage 75 mm by 38 mm and sculpt to give a bony back. Use a 25 mm egg shaped ball for the head. Use thin piping for the tail; fix it into a hole in the body with a cocktail stick and egg white. The back legs are made from thick rolled-out dough cut to shape and fixed with egg white/water and a cocktail stick. The front legs are thicker piping bent over and again fixed with egg white and a piece of cocktail stick.
Form the ears from two triangles and the horns from two pieces of piping worked to points at the end. Attach the ears first, then the horns and turn the ends upwards and inwards.


The donkey:
Make the donkey in the same way but sculpt the dough to give it a bony look. The head should also be sculpted for an elongated nose. Cut little ovals from rolled-out dough for the ears and fold in half, pinching slightly at the bottom.

Your salt dough nativity models are ready to be painted after baking.

I normally use acrylic paints which you can buy in tubes from art shops and stationers. Acrylic paint is water soluble, non-toxic and odourless. The paint also dries quickly and you can easily clean your brushes in water.

The best brushes for applying colour are synthetic brushes. You will need a medium sized nylon brush which is suitable for most purposes, a fine brush for painting details and a hoghair brush if you want to add highlights.

Note: Because acrylic paint dries quickly it is important not to let the paint dry on the brush, it becomes almost impossible to clean it, so make a habit of rinsing your brush when you have finished using a colour.

As you can see in the photo, you do not really need to buy lots of different coloured paints. If you have a few basic colours, you can mix your own colours.

Primary colours:

Blue, Red and Yellow can be mixed to form...

Secondary colours:

Green (yellow plus blue)
Orange (yellow plus red)
Purple/violet (red plus blue)

Tertiary colours:

Blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple and blue-purple

Interesting fact: When you mix a primary and secondary colour, the hue is a two-word name.

White and black can be added to any of these to darken or lighten a colour.

I have used white PVA (for painting walls) quite successfully when painting my salt dough models. I normally use it as a base coat before I use any other colour paint.

You can thin it down with water to apply as a wash when you want hightlights on your salt dough models.

White acrylic paint can also be mixed with a drop or two of food colouring to give lovely soft pastel colours.

Flesh colours:

Use coffee or tea as a wash for a very realistic flesh colour OR if you want a natural look you can leave faces, hands and/or feet without painting them.

Finishing touches:

When you have finished painting the salt dough models, it is important to seal them with two to four coats of clear varnish. Let each coat dry thoroughly before applying the next coat.

Here is the final touch to your nativity scene. You can really let the kids do this one as it is so easy to make. All you need is cardboard, (empty cereal boxes work great), paper fasteners, spray paint in colour of choice and straw from a pet shop.

The instructions for the assembly of the stable are too long to put up here, so I turned it into a pdf. file that you can download and print out.

Cooked salt/playdough

* 1 cup flour
* 1/2 cup salt
* 1 cup water
* 1 Tbsp cooking oil
* 2 Tbsp cream of tartar

Put the flour, salt, and cream of tartar into a pot and mix well. Add the oil and water. Cook over medium heat and continue to stir.

The dough will begin to thicken and form a all. Keep cooking until the dough doesn't seem sticky then turn it out onto some wax paper to cool a bit.

Knead dough until smooth. Divide dough into 3 - 4 balls and knead some drops of food coloring into each. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

In the same year that I made my original salt dough nativity scene, I also made decorations for the tree. Sadly the only members of these nativity decorations that survived all the years, are the cow and the donkey. You can have a look on my gift blog to see them.

You can download a pdf. file with images of the Salt Dough Nativity Decorations.

Many of the instructions I gave to make the original salt dough nativity scene can be used for the decorations as well.

Cut paper clips in half and insert before baking to hang the decorations on the tree. Bake, paint and decorate as desired and do not forget to seal the back and front of the models with two to three coats of clear varnish.

Have fun!

I recently found this wonderful site with nativity scenes from around the world. Here you can find lots of inspiration or even buy one or two to add to your Christmas decorations.

I particularly like the ones from Peru but they are all so beautiful. Hats off to the artists who have created these.
Nativity Scenes from Around the World

Even I stood in awe of this horse drawn carriage made from another version of salt dough. Please have a look, it is really amazing.

Claire is a young girl from France who makes amazing salt dough figures. Visit her Christmas Gallery for more ideas on nativity scenes and be sure to look at all the other galleries too.
Claire's Beautiful Salt Dough Crafts

Marité is another of my favourite salt dough artists. She has step by step instructions for a cute salt dough girl by the name of Clementiné.
Marité's Beautiful Salt Dough Crafts

I call ChezMarie the "lady salt dough crafter", she makes beautiful detailed salt dough ladies and her mice and dogs are so cute, too.
ChezMarie's Beautiful Salt Dough Crafts