The Wax Waterfall

What happens when you give 152 Crayolas (the biggest box they make with every color imaginable) and a device that melts crayons to a bunch of museum-goers?

As part of a class project designing exhibits for the Exploratorium, I wanted to explore the medium of wax.  While typically dripping wax is a nuisance – especially when it comes to candles – it can be nonetheless absolutely mesmerizing.  With the goal of highlighting the beauty of a melting candle, I wanted to create a piece that allowed users to play with melted wax, an inherently messy medium, and contribute to an continually evolving piece of art.

Visitors place a crayon of whatever color they choose into one of three slots that each feed into heated aluminum melters powered by highly resistive nichrome wire that melt the crayon.  As the crayon melts, it drips out of the melter onto the first of two heated platforms made of aluminum sheet metal.  The wax then flows from platform to platform as the colors mix and create intricate swirls and patterns before dropping onto a slanted sheet of white acrylic where the wax cools and collects.

Wax collecting and mixing on the heated platforms before dripping off

Each part of the piece displays wax into a different form - solid as it enters the melters, melted as it flows from platform to platform, and a combination of the two previous states as it changes back from liquid to solid at the base of the exhibit.  Yet no part stays the same at least so long as crayons are being melted.  The patterns of color on the platform are constantly in flux while the wax that collects at the exhibit's base is constantly being added to and altered.  At the same time each user has the chance to add to the exhibit by adding the color(s) of their choice and watching them melt.

The melted remains collected at the bottom