(re)Making Crayons

At Goodwill this week I found a pack of four Ikea ice cube trays for two dollars, and I thought immediately of the crayons left over from our wedding that I still hadn't used up (last year I tried melting them double boiler style, but that did not turn out pretty, check my Tumblr and scroll down to see that mini-tutorial).

So I read up on the task at hand, pulled out all my crayons. 
And broke them into the molds (ice cube trays). 

As recommended my another blogger, I grouped the colors by warm and cool, and monochromes.

As I was prepping for this project, I read various accounts of the trays melting, and not melting. The deciding factor I settled on was oven temperature. At 250 the trays do not melt (mine did not even come close to melting), however at 350 they very well might (according to the internet rumors). Also, there is text on the trays that reads "for water only". A discussion I read here suggests perhaps the rubber is porous and Ikea is avoiding possible lawsuits. In any case I decided to take the "risks".

This is the only baking sheet I have that was big enough to hold all four at once. I only put my Silpat down to help if they melted.

With my oven warmed to 250 (NOT 350). I put the crayons in. Scared by the melting trays rumor, I hovered near the oven. 

I set a timer for 5 minutes, and checked every one to two minutes, looking for melting trays. My trays did not melt. They did not weaken, they did not lean. It took about 10 minutes for my crayons to melt (all ovens are different), however I was so nervous I pulled them out before every crayon was Completely melted, my crayons are still fine, but wait to pull yours out until all you see is a puddle of wax, no crayon shaped lumps.  

Liquid is good, lumps are there to stay.

Once out I popped them into the freezer and continued with my day. I have a shoebox lid I use to support a more wobbly mold on its way into the ice cube area of my freezer, but that was overkill for these ice cube trays obviously made to support liquid. 

In the freezer to harden.

Ready to pop out.

The trays are thicker than my silicon bakeware, but still fully reversible.

Finished and ready to give away. There are a few more, these just fit nicely into a design.

I did not fill my trays with enough crayon bits. If I make them again I will overfill slightly and break the crayons into smaller bits, so they don't come out as shallow as these ones. The hearts and flowers are the most structurally sound. I got about half of my fish out with tails, and none of the starbursts came out with all arms intact, although a couple were very close. They will still make nice presents for the kids I work with.