Adventures with Kinetic Sand

Last week at plastic ponies on parade I saw a entrant in performance (so sorry I forget your name) had a sand arena in one of her entries. She said she used "kinetic sand, even though it's expensive it's well worth it"

I looked up the sand and was wowed both by the product and price (about $15-$20 for 1 pound) the sand is easy to make hoof prints in and doesn't stick to your model. Look it up on YouTube if you've never heard of it, it's really amazing. I figured there had to be a way for me to make some sand myself for less then buying it at the store or online. I found a simple recipe and tried it, not exactly like the real thing and wouldn't be good for sensory stimulus in a classroom but is perfect model horse wise.

Ingredients:

1 cup play/all purpose sand

1 cup flour

4 tablespoons baby oil (add more if needed)

First mix the flour and sand together, make sure they don't clump together. Stir until they are evenly blended (I used my hands to stir and did this outside in case the sand/flour mixture spilled it would be quite a messy clean up). 

After they are blended add 1 tablespoon baby oil at a time stirring in between each one to avoid clumping. It should start acting a bit like the real kinetic sand. If the sand isn't acting how you like add more baby oil as needed (I probably used around 5 tablespoons). Store in a plastic bag if you are not using it right away and it shouldn't dry out. Make sure to keep this out of the way of pets, my cat was very intent on trying to lick it and maybe she thought it was a litter box? Better safe then sorry keep the sand away from them.

This recipe doesn't have the flow or "living sand" feel of the real stuff. Some of the sand granules can stick to your models hooves/your hands but it is pretty easy just to wipe off and it doesn't damage the models. 

And it doesn't damage props either

Now since I have all this sand I need an arena! I purchased this acrylic frame at Michel's for $5 with a coupon in the framing section. And with a scrap price of wood I made an arena wall. Good thing since my last arena wasn't very nice.