Hot Craft - Crayon Art Jewelry

Hi, it's Tori West, who can't believe we are already into the third month of the year!  Wishing it were warmer, so I'm going to share a hot trend today - Melted Crayon Art.  Most of what is on the web consists of crayons melted with a hair dryer to form a picture (usually with the crayons still attached to the picture).  I decided to heat that up a bit by using a heat gun, and see what I could come up with using Creative Paperclay®.

For this project I used:
Creative Paperclay® modeling material
scraps of jewelry chain
wire nippers
corrugated cardboard
aluminum foil
cardboard box
straight pins
heat gun
Crayola crayons
Delta Ceramcoat Satin Varnish

If you decide to try this technique please use caution and remember......

• The heat gun gets really HOT
• Everything within range of the heat gun gets really hot. The melting wax is hot and it will stick to your skin if you touch it. 
• Using the heat gun may also cause the hot wax to blow onto other things. Certain colors of hot wax may permanently stain some surfaces.
• The heat gun, wax, and surrounding area stay hot for a while, so make sure you don't touch them or set the heat gun against anything until everything has cooled.
• The heat gun can create enough heat to cause the wax to smoke, so make sure you keep it at a safe distance from the wax and remove the heat immediately if smoke develops.

(You can do this technique with a blow dryer set to the high setting, however, I think using the heat gun is preferable due to the highly focused area of heat and faster melting of the wax.  You will not get the crayons to run and blend in the same way with a blow dryer)

First I prepared clay "blanks"

Rolled out clay and cut to desired shape,
then added a short length of chain. 

A second layer was added and cut to the same shape as the first

 After the pieces were dry, I sanded them smooth and did some further shaping.

I set up my work area, starting with a double thickness of corrugated cardboard covered with foil to use as the blank holding surface, then putting that work surface in a large cardboard box to catch any blowing wax.

work area set up

I removed all the paper from my crayons and set them aside.

The blanks were pinned to the work board with one pin through each loop, and one on each side to prevent the piece from blowing around while being worked on.

When all was ready, I used the heat gun to start heating the clay, then applied crayons.  As you can see in the video, as things got hotter I adjusted the distance of the heat gun from the clay.

After the pieces cooled I let them set for a few days, then applied several coats of acrylic varnish.

Some other fun things that can be done while the wax is still cooling is to push the wax around with a toothpick, or to use a colored pencil to add definition or enhance the designs.

Thanks for joining me again!

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