Play with Clay!

Here's a simple recipe for a sort of clay that you can make small objects from. After they have dried, you can even decorate them with paint. Study the ancient pottery designs in the previous post, and see if you can make something that looks like it's very old, too.

What you'll need:
3 cups flour
1/4 cup salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Food coloring
Large bowl

Mix the flour and salt in the bowl. Add the water, oil, and food coloring slowly while mixing. Try forming the clay into a mound. If it seems too dry and crumbles, add a little more water. If it's too soft to hold its shape, add flour. Form this clay into a small bowl or other shape. Let it sit in a warm place for about 24 hours to dry. After it is dry, you can decorate it with acrylics, water colors, or other paints. However, this object should not be used to hold any food products. It will turn soft again if it gets wet, and you don't know if the paints you used are safe to eat.

You can store any unused clay in plastic bags, but throw it away if it gets moldy or starts to smell funny.