Crayon Coated Sculpture

The Run-down: In this Instructable, I'm gonna show you how to make a rough sculpture out of scrap wood and then finish it with melted crayon wax to make it look cool!

The Techniques:

Double-pointed nail connections for wood

Melt and pour crayon coating

Crayon Casting

The Background: I lived in South Korea like, I dunno, AGES ago. And there was always this junk furniture people left out on the street for scroungers like me to scoop up. So PRESTO, I had sculpture material! I was also teaching kindergarten at the time, which meant lots of broken crayon scraps. BLAMMO - finishing material! So I made a sculpture out of scrap wood and covered in melted crayons and I thought it was fine and dandy! And then I gave it to a dear friend...

I was thinking about that lately and decided to recreate it Problem is, I haven't seen it in like 20 years, so I kinda made it up. Considering that, I'm pretty happy how it turned out. I think the original was a lot spindlier but I wanted this one a bit more robust. The crayon wax covers up everything so well, you can totally just hack a sculpture together and then make it look great!

I used all sorts of power tools this time because they're awesome! But the last time I made this sculpture, I used only hand tools, basically just a Swiss Amy knife!! So you can for sure do this all using hand tools, but power tools will make things faster if you're in a rush to get... somewhere? I'll include the hand tools I recomend next to the comparable power tools for all you purists out there XD

Safety Gear (Yeah, I am talking to you!)

Ear plugs

Gloves

Goggles

Tools

Scissors

Kitchen knife

Tongs

Jigsaw / hand saw

Clamp(s)

Angle grinder (with flap sanding disc and metal grinding disc) / rasp, file, and sandpaper

Drill / I dunno, hand drill??

Hammer

Assorted carving tools

Spoons

Food and bev cans

Fingernails

Materials

Scrap wood

scrap board (I used a fibre-cement scrap I had laying around)

Small nails

Wood glue and/or superglue

Crayons

Newspaper and/or parchment paper

Painter's tape

Plasticine

Pretty straight-forward...

Choose pieces of wood. Don't worry about their finish because the wax will stick to and cover ANYTHING!

Draw out your parts onto the wood with a pencil or a pen or even a handy crayon from Step 4 (hey, no peeking ahead!!).

Then use a jigsaw or a hand saw to cut these pieces out. They can be rough, don't worry about it. Seriously, hey, just chillax and enjoy the process :)

I used a couple of clamps to hold the pieces onto my work bench while I cut to make it a bit easier. Yeah, I got clamps. Fancy, right?

Now it's time for them earplugs!

I used this cool sandpaper flap disc on my angle grinder to shape all the pieces I cut to make them thinner and also clean up the rough edges left by the jigsaw. See, I told you not to worry!

I also used a drill to put holes into the 2 props the little guy is holding, the umbrella and the suitcase. Then I finished the handles of those 2 off with hand tools. And OOPS! I forgot to take pics, but you'll see them soon in...

Now you need the hammer, nails, and wood glue.

I said, NOW YOU NEED THE - hey, you can take out the earplugs now!

This is a method I've seen a lot of sneaky finishing carpenters use to hide connections.

For each piece, gently hammer in a nail or 2 where there will be connections. I used 2 in the hat, and then 1 each in the arms, legs, and the neck, so 10 in total (I know, but I dropped 3!).

Then grab the angle grinder - oops, you'll need to put the earplugs back in! - and change to a grinding disc. Grind off the nail heads and then grind each stump to a sharp point. VOILA - you've got double-pointed nails!! Now gently, oh so gently tap the pieces together.

WAIT!

Don't forget a drop of wood glue for each connection!

OK, now gently hammer the pieces together. In my case, some of my scrap wood was really soft so I was able to just push the pieces together.

I also used the angle grinder to shape the connection joints to get the angles right. Shoulda told you that earlier, right? Sorry.

In any case, my little figure is now assembled and has a dynamic look about him, like he's taking a jaunty walk through the city. I added the umbrella and briefcase with just glue since the connections were way too small to nail. Hope they stay...!

Surprisingly, my sculpture did last the night without disintegrating or being stolen. So far, so good!

Now it's time to prepare the finishes.

Basically, get some clean food cans or drink cans. Cut off or otherwise remove the lids. I used pea tins and beer cans, the latter I cut with scissors easy as pie.

Next, get your crayons ready. If you are using broken scrappy ones, great. I went out and bought some new ones because they're cheap and whatever I didn't use here I can now use to colour my world!

In most cases, you won't find the exact colours you want to cover your sculpture, but no problem. You can just mix colours by melting them together.

For example, the red I had was too vibrant so I added in some brown and got the tone I wanted.

Melt your crayons by first taking off the paper wrappers, then chopping them into little bits and putting the bits in the cans, and the cans on the burner, and the bog down in the valley-o.

KEEP THE HEAT LOW!!!!

You can put these cans right onto a gas or electric burner, but keep watch at all times and keep the heat set as low as apple-bottom jeans. Otherwise you could burn your crayons or even light your kitchen on fire. BE CAREFUL!!

Choose the colours you want for each part of the sculpture. Melt them and mix until you are happy. Let them solidify to be sure - don't worry, you can melt them again later.

SAFETY NOTICE: Food and beverage cans are normally coated with plastics like epoxy. If you heat them up, this coating can burn off, so keep that heat low - just high enough to melt the wax. Working outside or under a hood is a good idea, too.

I decided to try casting this wax, which is something I haven't done before. I had some scraps of brown (the colour of entropy!) plasticine kicking around so I thought to myself, "Self, let's try casting a necktie!"

I made a very quick mould over some parchment paper. Then I mixed red and brown and poured it into my mould and yeah, it leaked. I even took a blurry photo of how messy it was t separate from the plasticine.

But you know what? It actually looked pretty good in the end. I used perhaps the greatest tool of all to clean off the cast - my fingernail - and it came out nice! I then used a carving tool to add a little detail, and the it was done.

This step is where all the fun happens!

Choose which colours you will work on first, usually starting from the top to the bottom. If necessary, tape off areas to keep the wax from spilling on them and to protect the wax you're already poured.

Heat up your colour and apply it. I used a spoon to dribble wax on small areas, and I picked up the can and poured it over large areas for a great runny effect.

It's best to work over parchment paper because you can be as messy as you like. I just waited a minute after a pour and scraped up the wax with a knife to put it back in the melting can.

Have a lot of fun here - I used sombre colours but of course you can use whatever you like!

And obviously I don't need to tell you that hot wax is dangerous!

To attach the necktie, I used a lighter to melt the back of it and quickly pressed it into place. E-Z!

Then my wife told me I should mount this guy on a board and who am I to argue? So I prepped a scrap of fibre-cement board and marked out the foot positions. Then I poured wax tracks. I wanted it to look like this guy is melting into his world. I then superglued the feet and umbrella point down and it was DONE!

Not sure the cat is a huge fan, though.

Just as an afterword, this project is messy and there's a bit of a learning curve to working with the wax.

Here's my best advice:

*wear your best crappy shirt for this

*put down WAY more newspaper than you think you'll need

*get more crayons than you think you'll need

(I ran out of brown, but luckily remembered what green and red make!)

*keep superglue handy

(Yeah, of course I dropped and broke my little guy, but I glued him back together and covered him with wax. You didn't even notice, did you?)

Hope you enjoy making your own crayon coated sculptures!!!