Play-doh Forever

Play-doh!

You just read that 8 character word and you automatically know what I am talking about.  You remember the yellow cannisters with the colorful lids that corresponded to the hue of putty inside just waiting to be transformed into your latest scultural masterpiece.  I think the majority of us has played with Play-doh growing up and perhaps so have our kids.  Mine loved it, made a mess, and drove me crazy when they mixed up the colors.  I think we should all admit that we tasted it too at one point!

Did you know that Play-Doh originated as wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s?  It was manufactured by the Kutol Products Soap Company in Ohio.  This pliable, putty-like substance was made from a non-toxic recipe of water, salt, and flour.  After World War II, however, sales of this products plummeted. First, families converted to oil and gas from coal home furnaces so the amount of soot in their homes decreased.  Also, vinyl-based wallpaper was introduced that was washable with soap and water.  While the Kutol company was struggling to stay afloat by the mid-1950s, they discovered a family member, who was a local teacher, had been using the putty for different reason than cleaning wallpaper.  She had been using it regularly in her classroom to encourage art and play among her students.  This inspired the company to reformulate the cleaner into a child’s toy of modelling clay called Play-Doh and rename itself The Rainbow Crafts Company.  Distribution was local of course at first, but then it received national spotlight when it was featured by Bob Keashan on his Captain Kangaroo Television show.  General Mills acquired the company in 1965 and continued to manufacture the modelling clay.  Play-Doh was eventually placed under the Kenner brand name in 1972 until that subsidary was acquired by Hasbro in 1991.

There was a recipe floating around online recently in one of my Young Living groups that inspired me to pull out the one we used in our home growing up.  Turns out, these recipes are the same! I scented our play dough of today with lavender and chamomile essential oils to enhance this calming and relaxing activity 🙂

The color of German Chamomile

According to the 2004 US Patent, these are the ingredients in store bought Play-Doh:

• water
• starch based binder
• retrogradation inhibitor (keeps starch from re-crystalizing)
• salt
• lubricant
• surfactant
• preservative
• hardener
• humectant (keeps substance moist)
• fragrance
• color

That’s alot of ingredients that combined to create a definite distance from the original non-toxic recipe of the 1930s.  Here is the simple one I used from basic kitchen ingredients:

Stovetop Play-Doh

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• Optional: essentail oils, food coloring, natural dyes

Instructions:  Place contents in a pan on the stove and stir constantly over low heat.  This will thicken quickly!  Allow to cool slightly before adding oils and coloring if you are using.  My kids and I divided our dough in half and added lavender to one part and then chamomile essential oil to the other. Store it in an air tight container in the refrigerator to make it last longer!