Play dough that can be kept OR baked?

Any "air-dry" clay will stay soft if it's kept airtight, and will become hard when exposed to air over a day or so (the drying can be speeded up in heat or moving air or oven, etc, but heat isn't required for hardening).

Air-dry clays can be made at home with either a grain/flour base or with a paper base.

Some of them can kind of rot or mildew if they're kept a long time (without adding a preservative) even in air-tight containers.

And btw, "PlayDoh" is the brand name of a manufactured air-dry clay.

It's not the same though as the many "play doughs" there are --those are air-dry clays which are made from grain products (and end up as true doughs).

The other main kinds of "clay" you'd probably run across would be polymer clay and plasticine type clay.

Polymer clay will never harden (even in the air) until it's heated and then cures by chemical reaction (Fimo, Premo, Sculpey, etc).

Plasticine type clays will never harden no matter what you do to them.

More info, brands/etc, on all those clays in my answer here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201006...

and maybe this one too:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=201105... (read the "list of facts" there especially)

HTH

Hi, you mean a salt dough, 2 cups of flour 1 cup of salt and mix with water until a firm dough is made, you can then bake it in a cool oven (80-100°c) or allow it to dry naturally. Then you can cover it in paint when ready.

Same dough, usually.

There are a huge number of recipes for play dough. Each has specific characteristics, and one might be better for your purposes than another. Here is one source of a LOT of different recipes: http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/