Salt Dough Diva Lamps

Salt Dough Diva lamps are great for children of any age.
It allows them freedom to be create and express themselves, making a piece of art. They can then go on to learn about the Festival of Light, Diwali celebrated by Hindu's and Sikhs around the world.
Diwali is also celebrated to mark a good crop at Harvest.

Little N is currently 23 months old.

I made the salt dough the night before I planned to make these with her.

You will need:

1 cup of Salt
2 cups of Plain Flour
1 cup of water

Add to a bowl and mix well.

The following day I gave Little N some of the salt dough to play with.
I explained to her what I was doing as I made them and showed her as we did it.
She did a great job copying in her own interpretation, she really enjoyed it so I am glad I included her in this stage.
While she made her 'diva lamps' I was sitting at the other end of her table making a selection of diva lamps ready to bake.

As Little N is still so young she hasn't quite got the control to manipulate materials like dough to create effects like the Diva lamps, but I knew she would really enjoy decorating and watching them all lit for Diwali.



I baked the lamps in the oven on 100 degrees for around an hour and a half.

You can wait for them to air dry but I dread to think how long you would be waiting for.

Once they were cooked I left them to cool down.

The following day we set about painting them.



Little N really enjoyed doing this, and even recalled what the lamps were called as I placed them down on the table ready to paint, in front of her. She swirled her brush around, covering the lamps with colourful paint! I helped a little too to make sure the paint covered the lamps all over.

She loved cleaning the brushes in the jug
"I'm helping Mommy" she said.
"You're doing a great job!" I replied.
"All done now, brush all clean" she added.

Here is how they looked as they were waiting to dry:


I left them to dry over night.

The following day it was time to get lots of different coloured glitter and sequins together ready to make the lamps even more attractive.

Little N is like a crow and loves anything that's pretty and sparkles.

Together we covered the lamps in lots of see-through PVA glue and she began selecting the sequins and glitter as she wished to decorate the diva lamps.

Here are the outcomes:


Our Diva lamps were ready in time to light for Diwali!

Learning:

- Fine motor skills
- Being creative
- Colours
- Learning about different cultures and celebrations
- Working together

Extending

We will go on to learn about more cultures and celebrations. As Little N gets older I shall teach her more about what the celebrations mean and why they are celebrated. For now we plan to keep things fun and simple.