Sunday, December 5, 2010

Crayon Factory

Who knew that the making of colored crayons could be so beautiful?



Thanks, Roberto
Previously on GJ: How Printing Ink is Made

13 comments:

  1. I love the rhythm of it all haha :D

    Man, I remember when I was a kid and I totally hated the paper wrapping. It just felt so dry so I always ended up ripping that part off. It didn't make sense to me anyway to have it there since you'll have to rip it off when the crayon gets shorter.

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  2. If you had grown up in the 80's you might remember the Mr Rodger's video on How People Make Crayons. It is so soothing to watch. Sesame Street also did a similar version, only it didn't had narration but some trippy background music. Apparently, many other children loved it as much as I did.

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  3. Not quite as awesome as the printing ink, but still pretty cool. I didn't know America invented crayons, for one.

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  4. Made me wonder - if the crayon hadn't been invented, what could possibly have taken its place?

    I love my oil paints, but I think watching those being made might be a bit scary!

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  5. Thanks to both Jim and Carolyn! I loved watching the crayons being made.

    Do any of you know why Crayolas are so much better than Rose Art? Do they use more pigment?

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  6. I took a tour of the Crayola factory in Pennsylvania when I was a kid, and I remember them going on about how they made the highest quality crayons. I do think theirs have more pigment in them. The Roseart crayons feel a lot more waxy to me as well.

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  7. I love these kind of machines! I work in a bakery right now and the action of the machine that folds the cardboard boxes the loafs of bread go into is quite elegant!

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  8. they are fun but difficult to work with - my niece wanted me to draw 'realistic' animals and i found it really hard!

    i am curious.. Does anyone know of any outstanding examples of crayon art.

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  9. Back when I was a kid we had to grind our own pigments and harvest our own wax from wild beehives!
    I really love encaustic painting. You can get wax mediums to mix with your oil paints and get some very wonderful, buttery effects.
    I painted a 20’ x 30’ ceiling mural/oculus of Tiepolo-type clouds with this technique and it turned out great! Very luminous and muscular.

    @MPN Here are some links to learn more:

    Crayon Artists (Jasper John’s famous flag paintings are encaustics):

    http://www.google.com/search?q=crayon+art&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

    Encaustic art:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=encaustic+art&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

    History:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=encaustic+art+history&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


    Supplies:

    http://www.google.com/search?q=encaustic+art+supplies&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

    Enjoy! -RQ

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  10. Love these 'how they make it' vids and love machinery, it's rhythm too.

    I read somewhere that you can send your crayon stubs back to Crayola and they recycle them, melting them down again. Although if theirs are a better quality (ingredients) I don't know how they would separate out cheaper brands... especially since Conny "Loathsome" tears off the paper labels... Conny...☹ ✏

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  11. As other people have mentioned, the Mister Rogers episode containing the "How People Make Crayons" was absolutely fabulous and enhanced my enjoyment and understanding of crayons since then. I wonder if there have been other videos with how other art tools are made, like colored pencils, acrylics, etc?

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  12. Ha! I immediately thought of the Mr. Roger's episode too!

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