Monday, October 14, 2019

Melting Cauldrons

This is an epic process art project with such a fun outcome! Get those hairdryers ready!



What you need:
- colored card or paper
- crayons
- grater
- wax paper
- tape
- pencil
- scissors
- hair dryer
- oven tray
- some sort of mat or tray is a good idea as it can get messy (we used our IKEA SMULA trays)


How it works:
I saw a really cool video on @crayola and loved the process behind their witch's cauldron craft. I made a few changes to suit the ages of my kids and they had an absolute blast with the project! To prep I drew and cut out two colored cauldrons, with the inner sections cut out. I also prepared two rectangular pieces of wax paper for each cauldron. Then it was a case of presenting the materials and starting the process of grating the crayons.



The kids chose several colors and we peeled off the paper. They then used the small hand held grater to make tiny crayon shavings in a pile on the wax paper. It was great seeing big bro and baby sis working as a team.



A little tip is to try and use mainly lighter colors as these look awesome when the light shines through them later on.



Once they each had a pile of shavings on their wax paper, I placed that piece of wax paper on the oven tray. Then I taped the other piece of wax paper securely over the top. We headed to the bathroom and got the hair dryer out. I took the time to carefully explain to my kids that the wax and tray will get hot and not to touch it. Big bro was in charge of using the hair dryer to melt the wax.



It was so cool watching as the crayon shavings melted and all the colors merged!



We left the wax on the oven tray until it was completely cooled. I peeled off the tape and cut it to size ready to attach to the cauldron. Big bro was in charge of taping their colorful potions to their cauldrons.



They turned out so cool! Both kids were pretty mesmerized by the process and even more so by the end outcome! Look at those colors!



They kept holding them up to the sun to see the marbled effect of the crayon wax. A few air bubbles got in there which totally added to the spookiness of the potions!



The kids now have their melting cauldrons proudly on display in their bedroom. A really cool and unique process that was great for fine motor skills, STEM education and color conversation. I loved that both ages could join in!


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