Melting Crayons - another way...

Since I posted about the melting crayon experience with a couple of my grandchildren (a few weeks ago - see "A grand(children) time" 8/9/16), I have had a lot of comments from friends who want to do it, too. So I thought I would also post this - it's another way of looking at this technique.

We just returned from a visit to Vermont (ahhh, it's wonderfully cool there...), and a granddaughter there had her own ideas about trying this method.

Maizie is really interested in fish and wanted to to do an underwater scene. She picked out all the blues and purples and decided to take the paper off all the crayons. She also had the idea of making fish shapes out of painters' tape (it's the kind that is easily removed) - she taped the shapes onto her board. (She just used foam core for her project)

Then she used the hot glue gun and stuck all the crayons to the board. She put the board in the dirt driveway and leaned it against an old milk crate.

She started up the hairdryer...

...and the crayons began to melt. It wasn't long before the fish were completely covered with crayon, but if you look closely, you can still see a vague outline.

Once the crayons hardened, she carefully peeled off the taped fish. She needed a knife in a couple of places.

Voila! Fish revealed! We were both struck by the wonderful texture of the 'ocean' and the very interesting bottom edge that had been in the dirt. It wrapped itself forward and hardened that way.

As we used to say, "Try it, you'll like it!"