Emin, from High Wycombe, sent in this great rainbow log idea. Let’s take a look at it…
What did you do?
From an old tree log laying around, I had an idea to carve a rainbow on it and then back fill it with melted crayons and then hand engrave using a soldering iron to burn on the wood. For this I did the following
1. Firstly you would need to sand down the side face that the work is going to be on as much as possible.
2. You are then ready to use a router with an a bar attachment to be able to give you the arches. I found it best to set it to a depth of 10mm. You will start with the outer arch first and then work your way.
3. Once the arches have been routed out, you can then fill in all the gaps from the natural splits in the grain of the wood. Then once dry sand it all down again.
4. You are now ready for the crayons to be melted and poured in one at a time
5. Leave to cool down for a while as it will be very soft for quite a while.
6. You are now ready to finish of the stump with whatever design you like, for best effects I found using a soldering iron to engrave the wood by burning it on.
7. Using a external wood varnish cover all the areas of the stump to seal it and protect from the elements and also make it really stand out.
Once this was done I would then hand engrave a design using a soldering iron on the wood burning it on. This
What didn’t work :-
Laying the crayons in the groove then melting them with a hot air gun whilst works it does blow the colours around causing them to mix..
I have also learnt that because its a tree log there are lots of splits in the woods which makes the crayons seep through and mix with each other, so the 2nd one I did I actually used wood filler all over the sides of the groove and other areas then once dried this would be sanded down ready for the crayons to be poured in. The difference in doing this was big and there was no seeping and mixture of colours.
What worked :-
I have learnt to melt the crayons individually then pour the crayons in one at a time.
I also found by pouring the crayons in you get a really nice smooth finish on the crayons when it dries.
Do you have any other projects planned?
I have bought an Ostrich egg, that I have started to work on cutting shapes out of it ready to be painted and decorated.
Tell the Housebound With Kids community a bit about yourself…
My name is Emin, I live in high wycombe and I am 43years old. I have a wife and two kids aged 3 (boy) and 1 (girl). I would say i am quite creative with a bit of art background. Finding the time for arts and crafts has been a bit difficult due to family commitments and running my own company. But since lock down I have found a little extra time to hopefully share something nice for others to try for themselves.
How are you finding being housebound so far?
It has been fun spending time at home with the kids, thinking of ideas for activities for them and also to be away from work has meant that the kids have had a lot more attention throughout the day but It has also been a challenge as you can imagine.
Do you have any tips for other parents?
Having arts and crafts items at home you can certainly create lots of different ideas that kids will spend lots of fun time being creative.
Has being part of our community helped you?
The housebound with kids is a fantastic idea giving people some great ideas to help them through the days with their kids. It shows you don’t need to spend any money to be creative!
