Bread Dough

The bread dough project was an interesting study of materials. I ended up making a sort of woven structure that took quite a bit of time. The dough was very hard to work with at first, but changed consistency depending on whether water or flour was added. I found that water made it much more sticky and pliable and flour made it smoother and more stretchy, although the dough seemed to get less elastic as it was kneaded. I built a wooden and string cradle for the dough and connected strings of dough across it to make a sort of hammock. It looked neat but was a bit impractical as some of the strings contracted as they dried out and fell off of the frame. The end product was alright, though, but we'll see how it looks when it's baked. I also played with twisting the dough and I found that as it was worked with flower it tended to make really delicate cracks and folds that fanned out when it was twisted. I ended up putting glass in these cracks and twisting it up to make a little spiral that I skewered in order to keep it from falling apart. I found myself really stretched for ideas at the end and frustrated with the limitations of the material. I like dough, but I think in the end I prefer baking with it to building with it.