Make Your Own Natural Chemical Free Crayons
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Make Your Own Natural Chemical Free Crayons
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Hello fellow makers,
We all know how much kids love drawing with crayons but after a recent study about the nasty chemicals that can be found in some crayons I would be hesitant to let a child close to these innocent looking school supplies.
In the study six types of crayons where tested for asbestos and one tested positive for tremolite. Asbestos is a known carcinogen and can lead to serious health conditions, including lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Once again DIY can come to the rescue...
In this Instructable I will be taking you through the steps to create your own all natural, food safe, chemical free crayons.
Not only do these draw great but you can also create any color you can dream of (your kids will love making their own colors plus they'll learn about color mixing without even realising it) and by using mica powders you can make shimmering crayons like the one shown in this Instructable.
Lets get going...
Supplies
To make your own crayons you will need the following:
- 15mm Plastic Pipe
I used an 80mm long piece for my mold
- Beeswax
- Carnauba wax
- Soy wax
- Color pigments of your choice
- Painters tape
- Melting pot
- Dremel with a cutoff disk or a hacksaw
- Stove
*As an Amazon Associate I receive a small percentage from sales made through provided links at no cost to you, this helps fund future projects.
Making the Mold:
First step is to make a mold for our crayons.
The tube I linked above has a variety of diameters for you to choose from, I would recommend not going less than 10mm as it break a lot easier.
Using a diamond cutoff wheel attached to my Dremel I cut a 80mm length of tubing off.
Then with the same cutoff wheel I cut a slit along the length of the tube on one side, this we will use to open up the mold and release the crayon once it has hardened.
Prepping the Mold:
Next we need prep the mold for our first crayon pour.
Using painters tape I sealed off the slit on the side of the tube, you want to make sure the tape is properly stuck down as to avoid leaks when pouring.
Then take two pieces of tape and cross them over the bottom to create a cap.
To make pouring the wax into the mold easier I took a piece of plastic sheet and taped the tube onto it so that it wont fall over when pouring.
Pigments:
While I used mica powder in this crayon for it's shimmer effect there are a large range of other natural pigments you can use to color your crayons.
NATURAL DYES AND MINERAL PIGMENTS
Red - red oxide mineral pigments, Australian red clay, alkanet root, carmine, alizarin lake pigments
Pink - beet root powder (very pale), rose hip extract (very pale), hibiscus powder, titanium dioxide plus red oxide pigment, cochineal bugs (not vegan) with titanium dioxide
Orange - annatto (bright), alkanet root plus turmeric (burnt), yellow oxide plus red oxide
Yellow - turmeric (gold), yellow oxide mineral pigment, yellow ocher soil
Green - spirulina algae powder, chlorella algae powder, green oxide mineral pigment, French green clay
Blue - ultramarine blue mineral pigment, natural indigo powder, natural woad powder
Purple - purple ultramarine mineral pigment
Brown - red ocher soil, brown ocher soil, brown oxide, cocoa powder, coffee powder, black walnut powder, burnt umber mineral pigment
Black - charcoal, black oxide powder
White - titanium dioxide
The Crayon Mixture:
This is the recipe I follow, it gives hard crayons that spreads well and is not as brittle.
Makes approximately 5 to 6 crayons depending on mold size.
- 14 Tablespoons Beeswax pellets
- 6 Tablespoons Carnauba wax flakes
- 2 Tablespoons Soy wax flakes
- Pigment of your choice
Melting and Coloring:
Using a double boiler (This can be the linked pot, or a glass bowl placed into another pot with water) simmer the beeswax, carnauba wax and soy wax until all the wax is melted.
Tip: As the carnauba wax has a higher melting point than the rest you might want to start with melting that alone and then add the other waxes to it once molten.
While the waxes are melting, prepare a small container (I recommend small glass condiment bowls as the glass is much easier to clean afterwards) for each individual crayon by putting the desired pigments in each one.
When the wax mixture has completely melted, pour roughly a 5th of the wax into your first container with pigment.
Mix thoroughly and quickly as the wax will start cooling. If you live in a cooler climate you can preheat the glass containers in a low oven before pouring in the wax to slow down the cooling process and allow time for the pigment to be mixed in properly.
Pouring the Wax:
With the wax now melted and coloured its time to mold our crayons.
Continue to mix the pigmented wax until it cools slightly and begins to thicken then carefully pour the wax into your tube mold.
As the crayon cools it will shrink and create an indent on the top which you can fill up with any leftover wax.
Repeat with each additional crayon color and allow the crayons to sit and harden, to speed up the process once the crayons has set up enough to where it is no longer molten I dunk the molds into a bowl of cold water and leave them for 10 minutes. This also helps releasing them from the mold.
Demolding:
Once the wax has fully hardened it's time to reveal your crayon.
Remove all of the painters tape from the mold and then slightly bend open the mold on the seam, you will hear the wax release from the tube.
You can then simply slide it out of the mold by pressing it out with your finger.
Tip: If you have trouble with the wax releasing it is usually because the wax was too warm when you poured it into the mold, next time let it cool down and thicken slightly more. You can also spray the inside of the mold with some PAM cooking spray.
Sharpen Your Crayons:
Amazon - Crayon Sharpener
With your new batch of crayons fresh out of the mold all that's left to do is to sharpen them and you can start drawing!
I just used a shard utility knife blade and chiselled out a point, you can also use a crayon sharpener like the one linked above to make life easier.
Finally to finish off this project I put a brown paper sleeve around my crayons, this is completely optional of course.
Enjoy!
I hope you guys found this Instructable helpful and if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment bellow.