The Amazing Stuff

When kids are given crayons in restaurants, those crayons are thrown out after each use. If you think that sounds like an appalling waste, you’re not alone. Bryan Ware thought so, too. The California dad thought that these unwanted crayons should be going to a better use, and so he started collecting them.

In 2013, Ware started The Crayon Initiative, which collects unwanted crayons and turns them into new ones.

After being sorted by color, the crayons are melted down and remolded into a larger size that’s easy for little hands to work with.

Ware uses the crayons he collects to form new, easy-to-handle crayons that are then distributed to pediatric patients in hospitals. He started doing these donations in his home state of California, but this year, The Crayon Initiative is expanding and will be making a donation in New York. Ware and his team hope to continue expanding so kids in hospitals across the country, and perhaps beyond, can have art supplies.

Art supplies might seem like odd items to donate, but they allow kids living with illnesses an outlet to express their feelings — and have some fun.

Ware knows that a box of crayons is a small gift, but for a child confined to a hospital, they can be a window to the world. “From my perspective, the biggest goal is to give them an escape,” he explains. “I can’t even fathom what these kids are going through. If these crayons give them an escape from that hospital room for ten minutes, we did our job.”

Today, The Crayon Initiative creates thousands of new crayons. They even have this nifty mold!

And their focus group approves.

(via Popsugar)

You can read more about The Crayon Initiative on their website and Facebook page. You can also make a donation to keep kids coloring.

Artist Bryan Edmiston makes a living by answering 911 calls. As you can imagine, that job gets pretty grim. “I hear about some of the worst things one human can do to another,” he says. And after doing this day in and day out, it’s no surprise that Edmiston needed to find a way to vent all of that negativity.

What better way to do that than to create some happy, colorful art? Similar to the carved pencils we’ve covered in the past, Edmiston creates tiny sculptures out of crayons.

Edmiston considers his artwork to be the counterpoint to his job — happy, colorful, funny, and full of good memories. “I try to carve things that are innocent and joyful, things that people have fond memories of,” he says, explaining why so many of his pieces feature pop culture icons like the Beatles and Walter White.

Edmiston chose crayons after seeing the work of a fellow Etsy vendor. Crayons conjure memories of childhood creativity, so they seemed like the natural choice.

The crayons are carved carefully using a sharp blade, and extra colors are added by melting pieces of other crayons and painting the wax into place.

(via BoredPanda)

Currently, Edmiston is still working full time, but carving crayons is certainly his passion. In the future, he’d like to be able to devote more time to his craft.

You can see more of his work, and even get a sculpture of your own, at his Etsy shop. You can also follow his creations on Facebook.