My Kids’ Art

Melting Crayons Art: Kid Friendly Pseudo Encaustic

January 25, 2012

Melting Crayons Art: Kid Friendly Pseudo Encaustic
by Troy Redington

We’re major proponents of art and creativity at our house. And everyone in our house has been inspired by Johwey’s adventures in encaustics. A month or two ago, I was melting crayons with a hot iron and using the iron to ‘paint’ in a sketchbook. Rinoa was very interested and really wanted to try it. Sadly, I refused, as a hot iron and liquid wax were already pushing my danger limits. Putting a hot iron into the hands of a 7-year old wasn’t something I was willing to try do (yet).

We did agree to try something similar though. For our first attempt at this pseudo-encaustic art, we wanted to keep it simple. We took a trip to Target, our favorite non-Walmart store, and picked up a couple big boxes of crayons.

Rinoa took out the colors she didn’t want to use, like brown and black, and arranged what was left in a pattern of her choice. Her chosen pattern was essentially a backwards rainbow with a couple white crayons mixed in.

We glued them to the top of a black canvas using normal white craft glue. We took turns glueing each crayon and we played a game of ‘whoever gets the white crayons wins’. She had the ability to see 11 turns ahead and realize that I was going to get the 2nd white crayon, so she made the decision to rearrange the crayons a bit.

After the glue dried, we put the canvas up on an easel and used a hair dryer to melt the crayons and blow the hot wax down the canvas. The melted wax mixed naturally with the neighboring colors and created the effect.

There were no injuries, and the mess we made was minor. The project was a lot of fun and the result is a lovely piece that we’ll cherish almost as much as seeing our creative, innovative, and intelligent children grow up.

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Hapa-zome with Rinoa

September 2, 2011

Earlier this week, I discussed the hapa-zome technique which involves beating plants onto fabric with a hammer to create an imprint. I thought Rinoa would have fun smashing flowers so for Friday Art, we made a few cards using this technique.

We usually lay the fabric on a block of wood before hammering to protect our work surface but since the fabric was stitched on a card, the card acted as the buffer.

I mentioned that we use a plastic sheet over the flowers when we hammer so the flowers don’t get squooshed. Most of the time, the flowers get pressed on the plastic sheet which I discovered I can also use. I love the idea of being able to preserve the flowers. In this last sample, we used the pressed flower on the card – keep in mind though that you won’t be able to scrape the flower off the plastic, you would have to use it with the plastic. (So just cut the plastic to shape before adhering to your project.)

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In A Style All Their Own

July 29, 2011

For today, I want to share Mica’s and Rinoa’s recent paintings on canvas. They even chose the frames themselves. (Rinoa loved her choice of frame because it resembled waves which complemented her painting.)

Hello Kitty Meets Totoro by Mica Redington (acrylic on canvas)

The Mermaid at Sea by Rinoa Redington (acrylic on canvas)

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