Give old crayons a chance! First, gather, gather, gather! Teachers, parents and children are very happy to give their old crayons away especially when they will be returned in a new form :) Peel the paper off of them, break into muffin pan length size...then get some old muffin pans from a thrift store, and some vegetable oil and you are ready to go. Heat the oven to 300 F. Grease each muffin pan with vegetable oil fairly generously (this greatly helps get them out later!), place broken crayons in each muffin pan filling about 1/2 to two thirds full. Fatter crayons should be placed on the bottom because they get a little more heat more quickly. Place in oven, and watch closely every 2 - 3 minutes. Have potholders ready...as soon as they are 90% melted, pull them and place on countertop for 20 minutes.... I like to then stick them in the refridgerator for about an hour. It takes longer for them to cool than you think so DO not try to get them out too soon. They need to be 100% cool before you can pop them out very easily by slipping in a butter knife into one side. Want to make the coolest crayons ever? Well, once you have a muffin pan of crayons about 80% ish melted (almost no chunks or small chunks) - you can use a frozen pre-made mold out of ComposiMold (I used an ox seen here)- spoon out the melted crayon into the mold, tapping the mold lightly to get the wax to move into all of the spaces... Refridgerate and let cool and you can easily pop put a crayon that wows everyone. The results are pretty extraordinary with this stuff. I like to package up my new (old) crayons in sets of 6 in a crystal clear bag or tin with ribbon for presents too. Perfect for little hands.... BTW do NOT reuse these muffin pans for anything else. They are for this sole purpose only.
