Art with Melted Crayons

I first came across art with melted crayon when I saw a friend post her beautiful work on FB. I thought I had to try it together with my children. So we headed to the shop and got three thick black poster sheets for a base, some candles and lotsa crayons/oil pastel.

The project was lots of fun! Just google it and you'll get many tutorials. Basically you can either just stick on your crayons and melt them with a hair dryer, or let the crayons melt in the sun (no control here), or melt the tip of the crayon and draw short strokes or just dab on paper to create small dots. We decided to try a combination today.

Here we started today by melting the tips of crayons/oil pastel and dabbed on paper to create patterns.

2) This here is my work, partially done (dot by dot!). I  stuck on the crayons on the top of the head, which I then melted down with a hairdryer.

3) Here's the result of the above. It is a rather long process though, and can only be done with high heat. As I  melted the crayons with the hair dryer, I controlled the direction of flow by tilting the paper, and also by controlling the direction from which I blew the hairdryer. It is also possible to blow on the flowing wax to spread it further.

4)  Hair done, I just melted the tip of crayon and coloured the inside of the eyes. And that completed the work of the day. :)

My kids.....

Jo started well... dabbing dots here and there. But being the slightly impatient person she is, she decided on free flow. So she stuck on bits of crayons/pastel here and there, and we blew these with the hair dryer.

Nel put in great effort in actually completing an entire picture. Belief me, it is hard work, doing dot after dot, plus crayons cool down very fast. She then added "splashes" of melted wax. I must say that both enjoyed the process of melting wax with hair dryer, and so did I. It's the thrill of watching it melt and flow....it's just somehow, fascinating, satisfying. :)

Here's my complete work for the day. I believe a teacher should always work with her students to motivate them, and at the same time to demonstrate stuff  and to inspire ideas. Art together is always more fun. :)

That's all. Do give it a try. Just be warned, lots of mess! and lots of time needed to complete this.
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By the way, we found a weaver ant in our garden and kids decided to put it in a jar. Not a clear picture (taken through the glass), but here is the queen ant guarding her larva which will soon become worker ants for her that will start a new colony. yikes.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2012

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