Crayon on Candle, Melted

The morning began (as many mornings around here do) with encaustic art:

It soon became apparent to me, however, that on this day, Willow was more interested in the reactions of the candle and crayon to each other than she was in their effect on the canvas surface, so I showed her how to drip some wax onto the canvas and use it like glue to mount her candle, at which point she could experiment more closely with her specific interest:

The rolled beeswax candle IS really fascinating to play with in this way--sometimes the melted crayon pours down between the rolls, so that you can vaguely see it through the translucent layers of the candle, and sometimes it pours down the outside, and layers add to layers, etc.:

Will burned that candle down to the ground, let me tell you, and many unwrapped crayons lost their lives, but the intuitive knowledge that she's gaining of the math of how fluid flows and the rate at which fire burns, and of the chemistry of heat reactions and changes in states of matter, and the practice that she's getting in problem-solving and meeting inquiry, not to mention how her mind and body are experiencing the ego-less pleasure of immersive free play, and the contemplative state of being of watching soothing, smooth, unpredictable reactions--well, that's a morning quite well spent!

P.S. I have a round-up of crayon crafts that DON'T involve coloring over at Crafting a Green World today, if you're interested.

Melted Beeswax Play all Day

This is the season in which beeswax simply lives in the crafts crock pot, which in this season lives on the living room table. I was the most recent person to turn the crock pot on to make beeswax paper (at which activity I was, of COURSE, kept company):

That crock pot did not get turned off, however, at least not for several hours. All day long my girls, who are as familiar with beeswax as they are with any other art supply, simply played with it, turning the heat down to  partly solidify it then up again to melt it, stirring it and studying it--

--scooping out bits to play with--

---and just generally have the most intense, creative, joyful time that two little children can have, quietly and gently and occupied for hours.

I got SO many things done that day!