crayon-melting-molding-machine
Ohddedoh.com has been my recent vice. I stumbled upon the website a few months ago while doing some letter/graphics search on Google, and it [Ohdeedoh.com} revived my long lost arts and crafts instincts.
In the midst of preparing for Spooktacular 2010* I came across a fantastic crayon idea on the website from Homemade by Jill, but with my own spin. After one night of trying a frustrating, inefficient way of creating these wonderful crayons. With research and a lot of thinking I busted out with lots of Space Invader crayons and more!
what you need:
crayons (new or old)
candy/chocolate molds or ice tray molds
tin cans (I used a couple soup/canned tomato cans we had from the week)
wooden dowels
aluminum foil
baking pan
oven
oven mitt
how did I do it:
- group the crayons by color family (i did: reds, yellows, blues, greens, oranges, purples, browns, and blacks).
- preheat oven to 275 degrees.
- grab some foil and cover the baking pan. the foil will help protect your baking pan for future baking adventures, and great for easy clean-up.
- break up crayons and place it in a tin/aluminum can.
- place the tin/aluminum cans on your baking pan, and place it in the oven.
- the crayons will melt in about 5 to 7 minutes. but to be safe check the oven and stir occasionally to make sure there aren't any crayon chunks.
- once the crayons come to a liquid consistency begin pouring into your mold. the cans are going to be really hot so use that oven mitt.
- let the molds cool and then pop out the crayons! you can use the freezer for quick cooling too!
My ice tray molds are strictly for my crayons, but if you would like to use them for edible things make sure to wash your molds thoroughly.
Happy Crayon Crafting!
*Spooktacular is a two part event sponsored by the Philadelphia Associate AIA (young professionals working towards their architecture license).
Part 1, the Charette. During this event, design professionals and individuals collaborate with the students of CHAD (Charter High School for Architecture & Design) to design & create a miniature Halloween streetscape in a day.
Part Boo. All the panels will then be combined two weekends later, to create a safe “Spooky” hallow for the nursery students at the CcTC (The Children’s Crisis Treatment Center). The Children’s Crisis Treatment Center is an organization committed to assisting children and families cope with the impact of behavioral health issues, traumatic event and other challenges that have an effect on childhood development.