A craft tutorial: How to make crayon pendants

Materials: Old Crayons, knife (implement to cut up crayons very finely), old chopping board, silicone baking trays, toothpick, length of cord

Step 1-4

Peel all the wrappers off the old crayons, sort the crayons into colour groupings.

Chop them all nice and small. I used a knife, you could also use a chees grater. Remember whatever you are using cannot be used for food afterwards so make sure it is old.

Step 5

I recommend using silicone baking trays.

I got mine when I was in France (€3 each) Ikea do a range of trays too or just keep an eye out in your local pound shops or charity shops. I experimented with using ice cube trays and while it did technically work the result with the silicone trays was much better (in my opinion).

Fill the baking tray in vertical layers. This is important as the front of your ‘pendant’ will be whatever is at the bottom of the tray. So if you want variations of colours you must put the crayon shavings in in vertical layers.

Step 6

Leave the moulds slightly raised as when it bakes it will sink quite a lot.

Store excess shavings in tins. When I was cutting all the crayons up, I did a big amount all at once, that way it’s all ready to go next time I want to make some pendants in a rush.

Step 7

Place the moulds in a baking tray. Lay tin foil underneath in case of spilling. Put in a cold oven and set temperature to 100 degrees Celcius. Set timer for 16 minutes or until all melted.

Step 8

This is the most important step is you want to turn your crayons into fabulous pendants.

Leave to cool slightly, but before they are fully set and still slightly warm to the touch you must pierce the crayons with a toothpick. You want to make sure that they are set enough that the hole shape remains after you remove the crayon.

Then leave to fully harden.

Step 9

 Remove from moulds carefully.

You can see here the difference between the bottom (on your left) and the top.

Step 10

The hole may not have gone fully through so just get the toothpick and twist it till it pierces underside. Then thread the cord of your choice through the hole and there you have it. Your very own Crayon Pendants.

Now go on and get crafting. If you have any questions just leave them in the comments below.

xx Vanessa

FOLLOW UP: I just wanted to add a little about what I use the pendants for. These are not meant to be adult jewellery or permanent pieces of jewellery. I use them as party favours when doing up the party bags at the end of my Children’s Crafty Parties. They make very cool bookmarks in colouring books. Or they can be used simply as fabulously shaped crayons. They are slightly whimsical and they will wear away with time but that is part of their character. They have the same properties as the crayons they are made from so they may mark clothing or melt is left in extreme heat. ( We don’t suffer from heat in Ireland so I can’t really give any feedback on their performance on hot summer days!)

I hope this answers some questions that people may have had.