Fun with Salt Dough

As part of our final examinations, we had to create a Salt Dough sculpture. From the first day of class, I knew what I wanted to make. To me, my relationship with food is deeply rooted in the travels and parts of the world that my parents have given me the opportunity to see. It is the every day food of these places that create the fiber of the society and culture that that city or region has now become. I knew that I wanted to make a globe to show that relationship. Salt dough is an extremely tricky and fickle material to work with. It is comprised of popcorn salt, cornstarch and water.
To make my continents, I carved out each continent. These were version 2 out of about 5 as the salt dough kept on causing the continents to warp.


I started the sculpture in the end of April. The part that I had the hardest time with was covering the globe because the salt dough was so heavy. Sanding and patching, and ripping everything off and starting over again, took about a month working 1-3 hours every night after class.
Besides the globe (that turned), another crucial piece to my sculpture was the food that would surround the globe. The food that I chose was not any "fancy" dishes but rather again, local foods that represents to me those individual cultures.




A big shout out must go to Dara's husband Brian for being my master carpenter and engineer! Without him, the fact that my globe could spin could not be possible ( or even standing!)

This was the final product. All in all, I spent over 75 hours on the project but it was worth it!