6th Grade: Crayon Batik

I'm starting this project with one of my 6th grade classes this week! I'm going to have each student draw something that is a plant (flowers, leaves, trees, etc.). For my example, I drew The Tree of Gondor from The Lord of the Rings. This project has really great potential if students can follow directions well!

Step One: Plan out/draw the plant on a 12x12 piece of paper. I used white construction paper. The paper, of course, needs to be white in order for this to work!

Step Two: Color in the design. In order for this to work, you will need to press hard with your crayons to create thick, waxy layers. Anything that you want to make black, you should not color in - anything left "blank" will end up being black! For some reason, I wanted my tree to be white. I don't need to tell you why that was difficult!

Here is my completed coloring.

Step Three: Crinkle that paper! CAREFULLY! Otherwise it might rip on the edges. I've done it a few different ways.

• Option 1: Crinkle and uncrinkle the paper around eight times.
  
• Option 2: Crinkle the paper vertically, horizontally, diagonally, opposite-diagonally, etc.
  
  Basically, just crinkle it a lot.

Step Four: Smooth that paper out to prep for painting!

Step Five: Mix black tempera paint with a small amount of water and paint the entire paper with it! Crinkling the paper creates cracks in the waxy surface created by the crayons. The black paint mixture will fill in the cracks - batik! I really saturate the top to make sure I don't miss any spots.

Step Six: With a paper towel dab the excess paint off of the paper. Do not wipe it off! If you wipe it off, it will smear black paint all over your pretty picture! Dab, dab, DAB! There should be no pooling of paint by the time you are done dabbing.

Step Seven: Set your picture out to dry! You're done! Gaze with wonder at the beauty you've created!