DIY Natural Fossil | Crafternoons with the PMA

Follow along with Programming Assistant Alex as she creates dinosaur impressions in air-dry clay for a DIY fossil you can paint!

Nature Fossils

- Air-dry clay (*or Homemade Salt Dough, see recipe below*)

- Leaves, pine cones, sticks, rocks, flowers, shells, ferns, pine branches, or whatever you like from nature!

(1) Begin by rolling a small handful of air-dry clay into a smooth ball.

(2) On a clean, dry surface flatten the clay into a disc that’s about ½ to 1 inch thick. To reduce the mess, we recommend covering your work surface with old newspaper.

Optional: You can make the edges uneven and jagged, like a rock if you’d like it to look authentic. Or you can smooth the edges as we have in our video to have a nice smooth circle.

(3) Press nature items into the clay and carefully remove them, leaving a fossil print.

(4) Next, set your fossil aside and let it air dry for at least 48 hours (or bake it according to the salt dough directions below).

(5) When your fossil is fully dry you can use a dry brush to dab paint on it to make it look more authentic or get crazy with your colours and express your creativity!

* Haven’t got air-dry clay? Try play-dough, or make your own salt dough which will dry rock solid with the recipe below!
Homemade Salt Dough Recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup salt

1 cup cold water

Instructions:

Step 1
Mix flour and salt together in a bowl. Slowly mix in water, a few tablespoons at a time, into flour mixture until dough is smooth and easy to handle. Knead the dough for 10 minutes and let rest for 20 minutes.


Step 2

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).

Step 3
Form dough into desired shapes and arrange on a baking sheet.

Step 4
Bake in the preheated oven until dry and hard, about 2 hours. Allow to cool completely.

Step 5
Paint and decorate however you like!

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Видео DIY Natural Fossil | Crafternoons with the PMA канала Peterborough Museum & Archives