Note to self

[layla]

Do not use food-quality saucepan to melt crayons for encaustic wax painting. (... what? We're reading about encaustic painting in the chapter on Roman art, and I thought, hmm, that looks interesting, and hmm, crayons are made out of wax ...)

They do melt down nicely. But damn, they're hard to get off stainless steel. *scrubs*

Comments

[sara]

You may have better luck warming the pan slightly and wiping the residue out with paper towels.

[layla]

I got it eventually -- thanks for the tip! :)

[wyld_dandelyon]

Crayons have a LOT of dye--you can use part of one to dye a whole large candle-worth of wax. (I had a candle-decorating kit as a kid.)

If the paper towel trick doesn't work, try something else to absorb the dye. Something cheap, like oatmeal, would be my first attempt. Salt changes the acidity and might help. It's used to set dye in plant-fibers for tie-dyes, after all.

[layla]

That much dye? Really? That's pretty awesome (and now it seems like a shame to waste a whole crayon when just a part of one would have done!). Thanks for the tips; I got it eventually with hot water and scrubbing, but this'll come in handy if I do it again!

[wyld_dandelyon]

Well, my experience is with the Crayola crayons of my childhood; I can't promise all brands have that much dye. I've seen some as a Mom where the colors weren't exactly intense.