Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Summer Fun 2014 - Crayons, Candles, and Coloring Mixing - Art For Children

Remember our red, white, and blue, Flag Day, crayon candle - the one that wouldn't burn?

We had some left-over, birthday candles on the kitchen counter this morning, and we wondered if we melted them together with our old candle, to make a new candle, if it would it burn better - or at all.  

Before we got started with the candles though, I ask the younger children (ages 8-11) what color of crayon they thought we'd get if we melted the red, white, and blue candle back down, by itself.  It was interesting to listen to them brainstorming out their answer. 

They know that red, and blue make purple, and that white lightens a color.  But, our candle crayon had quite a bit more red, and white, than blue.  They were pretty sure we would have some kind purple, but they weren't entirely sure of the shade.

So, we melted the candle back down, in an old pan we use for this type of project, in the oven, on low heat, without the birthday candles.  When the wax melted, I used a craft stick to blend the colors together, and fish out the wick, then quickly piped some into the short end of a bent bendy straw, with an old pipette we didn't mind sacrificing (this part of the project was not child friendly as melted wax is very hot). 

Straws do not make the best molds for crayons, but in a pinch we made it work, letting the crayon cool, then snipping, and peeling back the straw far enough to reveal the crayon.

We pulled out all the purplish crayons we could find in our collection, chose the ones we thought were closest to our blended color, and did a quick coloring comparison...

...until we found a pretty close match - "egg plant", if you were wondering.

Satisfied with our color, the younger children stepped aside, and the teens stepped in, as we melted down the rest of the wax, with the birthday candles, and poured out a new candle for further testing.

But, that's a post for another day.

It's great to be a homeschooler.


MaryAnne said...

I'm very curious to hear if it burned! And that was a very clever solution, to use a straw as a crayon mold!

Phyllis said...

I agree with Maryanne that it was clever of you to use a straw as a crayon mold! How fun to use crayons to determine the color, too. The color is quite pretty, but then my room was painted in Eggplant when I was a teen.

Ticia said...

I can't wait to hear if the new candle burned.

I'm super impressed at the dexterity to make a crayon inside a straw, because seriously that would hurt a lot if you missed....

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Ticia - LOL! I stuck the bent straw into a Dixie cup, and then piped the melted crayon with a pipette into the short end of the straw. The pipette fit right into the straw, so no missing - the main problem was the wax cooling too quickly as it filled the straw.

Anonymous said...

Bind the straws together with rubber bands, string, etc and stand them in a bunch in a toilet paper tube. Set the tube in a disposable pan. Large tapioca straws work best.