Salt painting is one of my new favorite projects. It’s an amazingly playful process, the results are ultra cool , and there is a lot of room for observation and experimentation.
Materials:
- watercolor paper
- liquid watercolor
- school glue
- table salt
You start with glue. I discussed “drizzling” with my students, encouraging constant slow movement as you squeeze. We also
discussed “dot, dot, not a lot” and ” line, line, you so fine” which are rhymes I use a lot in the classroom. With my 4 yr. and up classes I demonstrated how to draw a few shapes with glue such as a heart, spiral, and flower with a stem and leaves. We talked about different shapes each child might want to do.
After drawing with glue each child was given a salt shaker full of salt. I use Dollar Tree shakers with wide holes so the salt just comes pouring out quikly. My students loved this part!
Watching the paint run through the salt is as much science as art. Before I handed out the paint I demonstrated how to move slowly and deliberately, barely touching the brush to the salt to transfer the liquid water color. Most students were entrhalled with this process and really slowed down and focused.
Younger students who were curious about the texture and materials were encouraged to work to their level and if that meant stirring d or even mashing around the salt and glue and color than they did and it came out fabulous!
As the art dried some of the watercolor soaked into the paper creating small veins off the salt drawings.
