When I was a kid my mom would get out a hot plate and let us put pieces of paper on it to draw with crayons.  The heat melted the crayons as you drew, so it was almost like painting with wax.  I remember really enjoying drawing this way, almost like wet-on-wet watercolor in which you can really play with color and form.  The colors were intense and bright, like paint.

For years I’ve wanted to do this with my children, but have been unable to find a hot plate at a reasonable price, not even at yard sales!

I had a bright idea the other day to try using a warmed cast-iron frying pan, and it worked beautifully.  It needs to be re-warmed after every second drawing or so.

We used the beeswax crayons from last year’s home school.  I was going to use them this year, but I think we will spring for a new set, as the old ones are broken, colors are missing, and all of them have toddler teeth marks.

The smell of the melting beeswax was beautiful, so much nicer than the regular wax crayons, and the colors were extra pretty.  The big kids pointed out that it warms your hands up a lot to color this way, and it certainly warms the house up, so we will probably save this idea for the winter months.