Crayon Melting - First Try

Robert and I brainstormed our ideas for our crayon melting art. We were both going to have a "burst" circle, and words in the middle. Robert made his words tiny, and they said, "Be happy." He then chose random crayons to come bursting off of the circle.

Before we glued them on, I wanted to see how they would melt. Bob had tried to heat up a white crayon (one we wouldn't use) in the microwave, in an attempt to get the paper of easily, but it didn't work. In fact, it hardly got warm in the microwave! We decided to check right away how they would melt with the hair dryer.

We glued on a gray, unwrapped crayon onto the cardboard Bob had spray painted white for us. After the hot glue was dry, we took the hair dryer to it. I put it on high right away (as a result of my new knowledge about the microwave). Woooooosh... The hair dryer is on. And still on. And we keep trying. Nothing. Not a drop. Finally (after 4 min.??) we start to see the crayon has some shine to it. But it's still not melting. I'm thinking I'll be buying a new hair dryer soon. The cardboard is getting hot to the touch. The spray paint is melting! We stop. We go shopping.

Dominick's has Crayola crayons. We bought two 64 packs (one for each of us). Another $12 later, we're back home, trying to melt a gray Crayola on the cardboard. One with paper, and one without. Success! Sure, the plastic table cloth wavered a bit, and there was some mess, but the crayons melted much easier, and we found out we don't want to keep the paper on them.

There we were, stripping the crayons - again. Bob helped a ton - he took his box cutter and cut a slit in the paper on each crayon we wanted to use so the paper would come off easily for us.

When Robert's crayons were staged on the canvas, I glued them on carefully with the hot glue gun for him. I had an idea for mine, as well, but it had to be put on hold as Robert was ready to try the melting right away!

What did I expect? More of a mess. We'd cleaned up the paper from the crayons, but what would the wax do? Bob got us a box and suggested we work outside. Good plan, as I also expected the melting to make the crayons stink...!