Introduction
This is a very simple recipe to make your own crayons. We used crushed charcoal from our charcoal making project but any pigments will work nicely. The carnauba wax helps to soften the crayons consistency nicely; beeswax alone will be too hard to use as a drawing tool. The cocoa butter is a really nice addition, super smooth and smells delicious!
Materials
- 500 gr beeswax
- 250gr cocoa butter
- 250gr carnauba wax
- Natural pigments, such as charcoal, spirulina powder, turmeric powder and beetroot powder. 1 tsp of each pigment.
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Old bowls for wax
- Silicon molds
- Wooden spoon
- Wooden skewers
- Paper cups.
Method
- Melt the beeswax in a double boiler, over a gentle heat. Simply place an old mixing bowl over a saucepan. Beeswax is the hardest material so requires a little longer to melt.
- Then add the carnauba wax and cocoa butter to the beeswax, use a wooden spoon to mix thoroughly.
- Add 1 teaspoon pigment to each paper cup. Then add as much of the wax mix as required, depending in the size and quantity of your molds. Work quickly so the wax doesn’t set! Mix well using a skewer, and pour into the mold.
- Allow the wax crayons to cool in the mold for about an hour. The wax strengths as it cools.
- Enjoy drawing and mark-making with your new crayons!
Notes
Enjoy experimenting with the quantities of pigments so as to achieve the desired shades and strengths of colour. Consider mixing the dry pigments to increase the colour range! Be on the lookout for crayon shaped silicon molds; we used silicone cake molds, cut into slices, but crayon shaped moulds would be nice to source.