The making of beads has been a tradition in many cultures since the beginning of time. Although used for adornment, beads can also have spiritual and cultural significance. Beads are still very important in Kenya and Tanzania today. Not only are they used for personal adornment and some tribal ceremonies, they are one of the exports from the region. The oldest beads were made of stones and shells, but as civilization advanced, so did the materials used for beading. Today, most of the beads are wood, glass or ceramic, but in recent years the rolled paper beads have also been added to their exports. Here are directions for making your own salt dough beads out of a basic salt dough recipe.

Basic Salt Dough Recipe

• 1 cup salt
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable/olive oil
• liquid or gel food coloring

Mix the salt and floor together. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add 3/4 cup of water and oil.

Begin mixing with a spoon, then finish kneading with hands. If the dough is crumbly, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water until the dough stays together and is smooth.

We like to let our dough “rest” before we begin to work with it. This allows the salt to absorb more of the liquid and makes the dough less crumbly. Place the dough in a zip lock bag. Try to remove all the air from the bag. Let rest for at least an hour, but overnight is even better!

Shape dough as desired. Salt dough will air dry in several days.

If you would like to speed up the process, place finished pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon mat and bake at 200 F for 1 – 3 hours. The drying time will depend on how thick your pieces are. When they are dry they will have a chalky appearance. Remove from heat before the bottom starts to brown.

Salt Dough Beads Necklace Directions – Makes 2 strings of beads

Materials and Supplies for Salt Dough Beads Necklace:

• 1 recipe of Basic Salt Dough
• Liquid or gel food coloring
• Modge Podge or other non-toxic clear sealer
• Thin twine
• Yarn needle
• Drinking straw
• Long pipe cleaner or toothpick
• A 2 tablespoon melon baller or a tablespoon
• Small zip lock baggies

Directions:

Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Place each piece in its own small zip lock bag.

While working one piece of dough, keep the other pieces in their zip lock bags. Salt dough tends to dry out quickly. Start by adding 10 drops of food color in the center of the dough. Fold dough over on itself until the color is thoroughly mixed. If the dough is too light, add several more drops of food color at a time until you get the color you want. We wound up using about 20 drops of food coloring on each piece of dough.

Add colors to the other 3 pieces of dough.

If you are using a 2 tablespoon melon baller, get a level scoop of two different colors of dough.

Roll it into balls and cut each into 4 equal pieces. Obviously, if you are using a regular tablespoon, cut your dough into 2 pieces.

Place 2 different colored pieces together and roll into a ball. For a simple 2 tone colored ball, simply push the 2 pieces together and roll.

If you would like your beads to have a marble effect, fold the 2 colors of dough over on themselves a couple of times before you roll them into balls.

To make the hole in your salt dough bead, push a straw through the middle of the bead.

This will flatten your bead a little. This is fine.

You will need to clean out the end of your straw after every 2 beads. We found sliding a pipe cleaner through the straw works great. You can also use a toothpick to pull the extra dough out of the end of the straw.

Continue mixing your colors to get a variety of salt dough beads. We also made several solid color beads.

Air dry or bake your salt dough beads as described in the Basic Salt Dough Recipe.

NOTE: We made 36 salt dough beads. There was dough left over. This will keep nicely in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Of course, you might want to turn all the dough into beads!

When the beads have been dried and cooled, you will want to seal the beads to stop them from cracking and to give them a nice sheen. We used Modge Podge, but you can also use any non-toxic sealer. Paint the beads with the sealer and set on a piece of waxed paper to dry. A light coat of sealer is fine.

Allow the sealer to dry overnight.

Cut 2 – 36″ pieces of twine. String 13 salt dough beads on one string and 19 on the other.

Tie off ends. Make sure the necklaces can easily slide over your head. We recommend cutting the twine into 2 different lengths so the necklaces are layered when worn together.

Wear separately or together.

To make your necklaces even more interesting, try combining them with some Paper Beads Necklaces!