I happened upon the idea for this little DIY quite by accident last summer when I left a cup of crayons sitting out in the hot August sun for the day, only to discover them all irrevocably fused together the following morning. I popped the little amalgamation of wax out of the glass it was sitting in, and instantly loved the little colorful nugget the crayons had become. “Why,” I sez to myself, “These look just like a mini-mini version of a John Chamberlain sculpture!” (Only with melted crayons instead of melted metal car parts.) I placed the color-pop of wanna-be Chamberlain on our mantle and there it has sat, adding a spot of whimsy to our otherwise organic, bookish living room.
I loved the idea of making bigger versions of this, so the kids and I recently set about re-enacting last year’s crayon melt-down on purpose, challenging El Scorcho the Sun to make like a blow-torch and make us some mini-art.
Here’s the super easy break-down on this no frills DIY:
- Gather all the nubs of old crayons you have clogging up craft buckets and peel off any paper on them. Throw a few good, fresh crayons in there too for size variation.
- Find an interesting shaped container to use as a mold — we used oyster shells – and line them with wax paper.
- Fill the container with a mishmash of crayons.
- Lay the container with crayons out in the sun for at least three hours, until some of the crayons have liquefied and the others have stuck together.
- Once the crayons have all amassed together, bring them inside to cool off.
- After the crayons have become hard and cool again, gently peel off the waxed paper.
Viola! Mini-Chamberlains! I think these look gorgeous on a shelf all alone – like really elevated, way-too-good-for-the-other-crayons crayons –or mixed in with other elements in a tabletop vignette.
{contributed by Lucia Simek}
