How to give old wax crayons a new lease of life
When crayons get all short and stubby, it's tempting to throw them away, and with the school summer holidays looming on the horizon, most parents will soon have a surplus of well-used waxies littering the house. But next time you're about to jettison any, think of the beauty of this little wax model, the work of Crayon Fawn, who melts down the old scribblers and turns them into fabulous works of art.
Over at Haute*Nature, they featured some instructions on how you can melt down your own crayons for model moulding purporses, with tips on how to add glitter or even scents your creation. Read on after the jump to find out how.
[Via Crafty Crafty]
To make your own-You will need:
A bunch of old crayons, wrappers removed, cut into pea size chunks
Candy molds, muffin tins, silcon molds or tin foil baking cups
Aluminum foil wrapped under tin, to prevent accidental spilling in oven
Optional: glitter, scent
1. Have an adult to preheat the oven to 150°.
2. Place your crayon pieces in the tins in interesting color combinations. Try different mixtures, but remember all colors together=brown. Similair colors together look best.
3. Sprinkle glitter sparkles and/or scent into tins.
4. Put them in the oven and watch closely during melting process. 15-20 minutes should be sufficient. If you turn the temperature up too high the wax may overheat and smoke.
5. Remove molds from oven to cool- and if you like place them in the freezer to speed up the process.
6. After crayons have cooled remove them from molds
Crayons may also me melted by constructing an ad-hock double boiler consisting of a frying pan filled with water and many small jars in the water. (Heat should be on low and water 1/2 way up the jars. Place combinations or single colors of crayons chunks in each jar and stir with a skewer or pencil. Once melted, pour into molds. With this method you can create color layers by pouring in a small amount allowing it to cool and adding the next color, repeating until full.
I used to do something similar, although I didn't use an oven. I used a small spirit burner. You can do similar things with old candles, melting them to make fresh candles using left-over wax lumps from used candles.
Posted by: Dan @ EnviroGadget | June 26, 2008 4:24 PM