I need to melt conte crayons

December 20, 2014 5:01 PM

Do you have experience melting not crayons but CONTE crayons? Conte crayons typically come in rod shapes. I want to melt the rods down and re-form them into flat slabs, probably 3x3x1/4" for use in sketching. For normal crayons I'm seeing a lot of crafters do 350-400° for 15-30 minutes, but I don't want to ruin my contes. I know their composition is different that regular crayola crayons, they being wax and fine clay and pigment, not just wax and pigment. (I believe) Any help appreciated!
posted by bird internet to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I worked in art supplies for 15 years and no one ever asked me this or told me about doing this. I would think you would encounter problems keeping the ingredients from separating.

Have you checked out Caran D'ache ? They used to make something like what you want. I don't have access to the supplier sites anymore.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 6:46 PM on December 20, 2014

Wikipedia says they are compressed clay, inorganic pigments and a binder like cellulose ether. If that's true they are really unlikely to melt (at least at temperatures available in the home).

If it was me I'd clip off a tiny sample and try baking it in a something disposable like an aluminum tart shell or even just a small cup made from aluminum foil. Then you'd know for sure without having wasted/destroyed an entire crayon.
posted by Mitheral at 7:36 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

I don't think conte will melt given the formulation with clay. You can buy other formats for some media although I've never seen conte as anything but sticks. Dakota Pastels sells a number of different kinds of pastels in interesting form factors so you might find what you're after there.
posted by leslies at 9:22 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: ArtGraf just recently came out with a set of water-soluble 'tailor shape' pigment blocks that might give you the drawing experience you're looking for. As far as getting Conté crayons into that shape, I think you're going to have to sacrifice one to experimentation.
posted by jimw at 9:54 PM on December 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Daniel Smith and Windsor Newton also make rodlike watercolor sticks, however I just read a scathing review of the latter; there's a chance ArtGraf's blocks may suffer from the same problems.

You may want to get some sanguine.

If you're willing to make your own from pigment and binders you can really tweak the properties. It looks pretty straightforward (I've always been tempted by Rebecca Alzofon's recipe.) Wear lung protection.

If you're making 3"x3"x1/4" terracotta-colored slabs, consider using terracotta clay as the source for the pigment, boiling it and filtering out the organic gunk that holds the clay platlets together with a big coffee filter and sieve and then mixing it with binder as per recipes and decanting into molds. As likely as not you have an old bag of terracotta clay on hand.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:54 PM on December 20, 2014

(Although the earth pigments aren't as gouginingly-priced as I'd have guessed.)
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:23 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Conte crayons definitely come in rectangular varieties. Save yourself the trouble and just buy them rectangular. Pretty sure they won't melt anyway.

Conte a Paris is probably the brand you're looking for.
posted by everyday_naturalist at 1:15 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Hmmmm, well I'm not seeing any rectangular varieties, e-naturalist.. At least not on that link, or at Conte a Paris web site.. Are you certain you have seen them?
posted by bird internet at 8:15 AM on December 21, 2014

Response by poster: This footage of a conte-making machine is hypnotic.

There! Those big chunks! I'll buy them by the pound, just like that! PERFECT
posted by bird internet at 8:42 AM on December 21, 2014

You can make a wide variety of marks with the standard-issue Conte crayon. You can sandpaper a fine tip to leave a pencil-like mark or you can lay it flat on its side to produce wide, sweeping marks. It's dry and similar to a chalk pastel so I'm not sure about melting it. The video you linked looks like a wax-based product.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 10:10 AM on December 21, 2014

Oops, I thought you meant hard edged rather than cylindrical. That's what I get for skimming, I guess. 3x3x1/4 is huge, and I don't think they come that big because at that size they would definitely break easily.

Maybe you could make them in that size. And rather than buying raw pigment you could probably get away with grinding up some pastels or conte crayons and then following a recipe for chalk pastels. Most recipes involve rolling them into a round shape but I don't see why it couldn't be flat, although consistency might be difficult.

There are the flat chalk pastels by townsend terrages that are sorta the flat shape you're looking for. As chalk pastels they are powdery and aren't going to be able to stand up to rough use like Conte crayons but they are probably still good for sketching. And while not flat, there are extra large pastel sticks by richeson and sennelier that maybe you could sandpaper maybe into having an edge.

Cretacolor makes watercolor blocks that are large and flat so you can draw with them. I haven't tried these but imagine they are similar to the aqua monolith watercolor pencils, something more like colored pencils in use/texture. But they can also be used with water for different effects so rather a different animal altogether I suppose.
posted by everyday_naturalist at 2:59 AM on December 22, 2014