Cotton Balls & Crayons

When you are a maker, inspiration can strike at anytime. The leaves changing this time of year coupled with a colorful cornucopia of Crayola crayon cases on clearance at Kmart might have just done the trick for Peter.

Also, the fine folks at Rockler sending out all manner of goodies also might have been partially responsible!

In these two projects, Peter relied upon the humble cotton ball and crayon to work their magic respectively. Each piece is a great exploration of a color, material and patience.

In a previous project Peter dabbled with soaking cotton balls in resin to make a quite impressive material. Adding a variety of colored pigment powders to the mix also stirred the imagination.

The resulting concoction really was quite vivid and stunning! After obtaining a sufficient quantity of material, Peter stuffed it into a silicone blank mold.

Once it was cured within a pressure pot to squash any trapped air bubbles, it was time to turn and hopefully not burn. Onto the lathe!

Using an assortment of turning tools, Peter was able to produce a rough cylindrical shape.

At the end of the blank, Peter threaded in an insert for the bottle opener kit to attach.

After further shaping, it was finally time for the sanding and polishing. This is almost always the most satisfying step in this process!

Once the handle was completed it was secured to the rest of the bottle opener kit. Nice!

In Peter’s shop, there sits a refrigerator with all manner of object within. Some such objects are boxes of Crayola brand crayons.

Many eons ago on YouTube, Peter learned that storing crayons in this way is a great way to peel off the labels with very little effort.

Occasionally, some remaining writing implements need to be coaxed out with a sharp knife, but freezing them can be a fantastic time saver when working on the scale Peter often does.

Using both a toaster oven and a blowtorch, Peter melts down his selection of colors into one pourable mixture. A simple acrylic cylinder made a perfect mold.

Again, using a selection of turning tools, Peter carefully reduces the amount of material from the swirly indigo blank. While he used several kits in the production of these objects, some amount of resourcefulness and problem solving is required to work with unorthodox materials.

Once again, the final piece is sanded and polished, resulting in an almost perfect gift for the discriminating Arrested Development fan in your life!

Perfection.