The first step in making a salt dough ball is a lot like making bread dough. Preheat the oven to 275 and mix together 1 cup salt, 1 cup water, and 2 cups flour into a mixing bowl. Stir until it's too thick to use a wooden spoon anymore, and dump it out onto a flat surface. Knead by hand until the dough reaches a smooth, flexible consistency and texture.
Cutting the dough for a salt dough basket is a lot like making the top of a criss-cross pie, only you weave the dough strips instead of lay them across one another. Roll out the dough into the consistency of a pie crust. Using pizza cutters or a bread knife, cut the dough into strips that fit across a pie pan.
Assemble your basket over a foil-covered baking pan in the shape you desire. A bread or pie pan work well, depending on how you want the final basket to look. Lie the dough strips crosswise across the pan, leaving about 1 inch between the dough strips. When done, lie the opposing dough strips the opposite way, carefully weaving them through the original dough strips. When done, add a sdough strip that goes around the top of the pan to seal all the dough strips together.
When you're happy with the appearance of your basket, leave it out to air dry (this may take several days), or bake it in a pre-heated oven at 275 degrees for approximately 4 hours (time varies according to shape and size of baking pan). Remove the oven, allow to cool and decorate with acrylic paints. Fill the basket with gifts, treats or baked items.