Occasionally I feel like looking back at the supplies that I used and loved when I was a child. I've written before about my Bensia non-sharpening ("pop-a-point") pencils and my Laurentien coloured pencils. Today, I'm going to share with you a supply that probably most of you used at some point - wax crayons.
I had a lot of wax crayons when I was a child, but my favourites were always these 64 Prang ColorArt crayons. I loved them so much that I could hardly bear to use them, and so I still have them today. A few of the crayons look like they have hardly ever been used. I loved these crayons because they were a complete set (most of my collection was just odds and ends, I think), they came with a sharpener (which I also hardly ever used), and they came in this awesome plastic case. It has a handle for carrying, and inside the crayons fit into eight trays, each of which can be removed separately. I think I spent more time as a child rearranging the crayons and the trays in the case rather than actually using the crayons. I was a weird kid. But I'm still rather obsessed with organizing things today...
I love the smell of wax crayons. I also love the rough line they leave on the paper, and all the bright colours they come in. The colours I appear to have used the most of were gold, brick red, cherry red, bittersweet, bright red, orange red, fluorescent yellow, blue, and fluorescent pink - a selection that puzzles me today. No green? And what was with all those reds?
A few years ago I made this chart in my sketchbook of all of the colours in this set:
Although today I may take these crayons out now and then to look at them or even to use them on a journal page, mostly I will just continue to keep them. It is items like these - more so than toys, photos, or school papers - that connect me best to my childhood and that bring back good memories.
What supplies remind you of your childhood? Do you still own or use any of them today?
I had this same crayon box when I was a child. Do you have any idea where I could find a replacement? Something similar would be ok but I loved being able to have each crayon in its own place.
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