Homemade Crayons
This was fun. We have plenty of broken crayons around here, and this was an obvious way to use them.
Ian really wanted to use the pencil sharpen to get shavings, while Chava was content to use broken crayon pieces. A little way into the process I got smart and moved us outside, since there were little crayon bits all over. They did Dust-bust right up, so it wasn’t a big problem, really.
I was a little more actively involved in this project than I usually am. I was the main crayon-breaker, and I talked to them a little about filling the trays up all the way, so the crayons were big enough to play with.
I was impressed by how intentional Chava was about her color choices. She had very specific ideas about which crayons should go together. When she wandered away for a minute, I admit that I tried to add some crayons to her tray. She took one look at her tray and said “So. These do not go here.” And moved every crayon that I had put in.
Ian eventually gave up on the sharpening, and switched to broken pieces as well. I wouldn’t recommend the sharpening approach, it was taking a really long time. We filled the molds up pretty full, and I was hoping that the crayons would melt down in, instead of making a crayon river in the oven. I did stand some of the bits up on their ends before putting them in the oven, to help them melt into the space, instead of onto the tray.
I had just baked, so the oven was on 350. I went and nursed Micah, and the crayons were in for about ten minutes, maybe less. There is a wee little chance that I melted the trays a bit…
We let them cool over night, and popped them out from beneath.
It actually turned out really well. The kids experimented with the different ways of holding the crayons, and drawing with the points or the flat parts. I really love the colors they came up with, and how bright they are on the paper. I wasn’t sure the kids would actually use them, but they have been coloring with them the last couple of days.
