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Often called salt dough or bread
dough, we call our completely
handcrafted Christmas tree
decorations “Dough Ornaments” .
There are many ways to make dough
ornaments, and many recipes. This
is how we’ve been creating them
for 37 years!
Calliope Designs recipe for Dough
Ornaments
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup salt
½ cup water
For a natural color dough, mix
these ingredients together, then
knead the dough for at least 10
minutes. The desired consistency
is a smooth dough, similar to real
bread dough – not too sticky, not
to dry. The exact portions of
flour, salt and water are not as
important as the consistency of
the dough – so if it’s too sticky
add more flour, if it’s too dry ad
more water.
Place the dough in a plastic bag
and protect it from getting dried
out.
If you like to work with the
natural colored dough, after the
ornaments are formed and baked,
you can paint them with acrylic
paints.
For colored dough, you can use
liquid or paste food coloring
which should be added to the
liquid measurement, then mixed
into the dry ingredients. If you
have access to powered non toxic
paints such as the type school
children use, mix the dry color
into the flour and salt mixture
before adding water.
Experiment with different amounts
of color. In general, the wet
dough will be the color of the
finished ornament after it is
baked and glazed.
There are many ways to form the
ornaments, and many books have
been written on the subject.
Please click on the section on our
home page entitled How to Make
Dough ornaments. This will show
you two photos of our ornaments
being constructed. You can see
some of the common household tools
we use to make dough ornaments. A
kitchen knife, garlic press,
toothpicks, and dough roller are a
few. There is also a link to the
Morton Salt Book called Dough It
Yourself Handbook Rises Again,
which has the very best
instructions and lots of great
examples and tips.
When your dough ornaments have
been formed we recommend you bake
them in a 225 degree oven until
they are completely hardened.
Sometimes this can take all night!
They will not burn at this
temperature. They have to be
thoroughly dried through and
through in order to be preserved.
After the ornaments are
baked/dried and cooled it is time
to glaze them. We prefer a shiny
coating and so we use a high gloss
polyurethane, and we dip our
ornaments. We give them at least 4
coats of polyurethane, letting
them dry for at least 24 hrs.
between each coating. We trim off
the drips using a sharp knife or
razor blade.
Always store your dough ornaments
in an airtight container in a dry
place inside your home. No attics
or basements please! You can
personalize them too using a fine
tip permanent marker.
By the way, we learned how to make
dough ornaments at a Christmas
party at the home of John and
Kathleen Holmes, Mill Valley,
California! It was a really fun
evening!
Find out more about dough
ornaments:
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