6.28.2012

Custom Crayons

Casting your own custom crayons:

You can do this by making your own mold or using one you buy.  
Gather the molds you want to use: pre-soaked plaster, silicon or rubber molds.  
You can use chocolate or ice cube molds from the store.



Gather old or new crayons (broken are fine, you are going to melt them anyway).  
Peel the paper off of the crayons (soaking crayons can help get stubborn wrappers off). 
Once they are all peeled you can start melting them using an old crock pot.  
Make sure you use a crock pot you never want to use for food again 
because some wax residue will persist.



The marbling that you see in the crock pot  will disappear as soon as you disturb it.  
Keep this in mind when you melt your crayons- A nice marble of yellow and blue will just turn into green when you start to scoop it out of the crock pot.  If  you want to do multiples colors for one crayon you can heat small bowls individually over a burner or pour the crayons one layer at a time, waiting to melt a new color in the big pot before you can do it.  You'll have to wait until the previous color/layer is cooled before you pour the subsequent.  


Using a scoop (that will end up with crayon wax all over it) scoop the crayon wax 
into your mold until it is filled to the top. The wax will shrink as it cools and leave a low 
spot in the center of the top of your cast.  You can fill this or leave it as is.



When you are done pull your crayons out of your mold.


Use an exacto knife or other tool- clay tools often work well-
 to clean up any seam lines or pour spouts.

Enjoy! You can take it one step further by making molds of your own
sculptures/sculptures your children make and turn them into crayons.



"Homemade Silicone Molds" tutorial to follow, check back soon!




6.24.2012

Maker Faire KC!

I'm at Maker Fiare KC this weekend, check back next week for mold making and casting tutorials!
This is my casting and mold making booth in the grand hall at the KC Maker Fiare,
 flocked by two gigantic giraffes.

6.20.2012

The glowing octopus is nearing completion

I have the dress made, the el wire sewn on, and am now embroidering the suction cups.  After that the dress is done.  Now all I have to do is cast at least 16 more giraffes, cast about 200 custom crayons make a few more alginate molds....

6.19.2012

Making, making, making

I'm hard at work getting things ready for Maker Faire KC...here are some in progress pictures:

My kitchen's current state:


 Making molds and casting:



Electroluminescent wire octopus dress
This dress will have a glowing red-orange octopus (or two) on it 
with a battery pack hidden underneath it.
Chalk drawing:

EL wire taped down with electrical tape as I stitch it down:

I will be wearing the dress at the KC Maker Faire at my booth for casting and moldmaking. 
 If you're a KC native stop on by!

6.15.2012

That cake was dynamite!

My husband's second birthday cake since I've started sculpting cakes.  Since the one in 2011 was an "ACME" bomb I couldn't not blow up this year's cake.  So in the tradition of stereotypical cartoon bombs I made three sticks of dynamite attached to an alarm clock.  

Here is is after the first explosion:
Makes for a great photo but wasn't quite the boom we wanted to we had to try again.

Here is what is left of the cake (and the table) after the second detonation: 


6.14.2012

hello! oops, it's been a really long time. well, here's some stuff i've done in the meantime.  i will be, as well as many other amazingly fantastic people, at the Maker Faire Kansas City June 23&24.  come by to see amazing artists and makers do great things!

First up: Mercury's Robots and Rocket Ships themed second birthday party:
 Rockets blasting off everywhere, some of which had robots riding them.



Rocket cake complete with smoke coming out the bottom.
Mercury and Dad shooting off real rockets in the field behind our house.

 Cupcakes! I sell cupcakes on First Fridays down in the Crossroads district of downtown 
Kansas City to raise funds for MS Society.  Here are some of my samples I have made:
Vanilla Wildberry.

Jellybean.

Chocolate Chip Carrot.

Strawberry Lemonade.

 Giraffes!!!
Giraffe Family for a local school auction.

More Cupcakes!:
Boulevard Wheat Beer cupcakes, with whipped cream or lemon icing 
for my friends at Gomer's South.

Peanut Butter Chocolate (background) and Smores (foreground) cupcakes
 for Alpha Montessori School's auction.

Triple Birthday Party for myself and two friends:
My friend Eric's cake, who co-owns a letter press shop.


My friends Ben's cake, his bike really looks like this:
 By the way, trampoline and bounce house IS a great idea.
 And no one got the least bit hurt.