A crayon (pronounced /ˈkɹei.ən/) is a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, and drawing. A crayon made of oiled chalk is called an oil pastel; when made of pigment with a dry binder, it is simply a pastel. A grease pencil or china marker (UK chinagraph pencil) is made of colored hardened grease and is useful for marking on hard, glossy surfaces such as porcelain or glass.
They are easy to work with, not messy (as paint and markers are), blunt (removing the risk of sharp points present when using a pencil or pen), non-toxic, very inexpensive, and available in a wide variety of colors.
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History
The world's largest manufacturer and inventor of wax crayons is Crayola LLC (formerly Binney & Smith Inc.), the manufacturer of Crayola crayons, which are made of paraffin wax, a petroleum product. The brand's first box of eight Crayola crayons made its debut in 1903, and was the first non-toxic crayon, aimed at children. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were: black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney, wife of Edwin Binney, who took the French words for chalk, craie, and oily, oléagineux, and combined them.[1] The Crayola Factory is located in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Other brand name crayon manufacturers include Rose Art Industries and Dixon Ticonderoga. There are also numerous suppliers who create generic brand or store brand crayons. These are typically found in supermarkets.
In 2000 there was a concern about potential contamination of asbestos in many popular brands of crayons after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in May of that year that they had tests performed finding that three brands of crayons contained asbestos.[2] In a follow up study released in June the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found traces of asbestos fibers in three crayons and larger amounts of transitional fibers which can be misinterpreted as asbestos as a result of using talc as a binding agent in additional crayons. CPSC declared the risk to be low, but said that because of the concerns it had asked manufactures to reformulate the concerned crayons and commended them for their swift agreement to do so.[3] Further tests have shown the risk to be insignificant, especially since the largest risk of asbestos is produced when it becomes friable and is then inhaled. Because the fibers are trapped in wax this is unlikely. As part of their testing the CPSC simulated heavy use by a child and did not find significant amounts of fibers released.[4][5]
Art
Some fine arts companies such as Swiss Caran d'Ache manufacture water-soluble crayons. With or without water, once applied to media the crayons' colors are easily mixed.
Oil pastels are a popular medium for color artwork. Conté crayons of clay and graphite are used for sketching, particularly in the trois crayons style. Antoine Watteau and Jean-François Millet are noted for using conté in their work.[6][7]
See also
References
- ^ The History of Crayola Crayons
- ^ "Major brands of kids' crayons contain asbestos, tests show". May 23, 2000. http://www.seattlepi.com/national/cray23.shtml. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
- ^ "CPSC Releases Test Results on Crayons, Industry to reformulate". U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. June 13, 2000. http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00123.html. Retrieved December 19, 2009. .
- ^ "CPSC Staff Report on Asbestos Fibers in Children's Crayons". U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. August 2000. http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/FOIA/foia00/os/crayons.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
- ^ "Crayon Me a River". December 31, 2005. http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/crayons.asp. Retrieved December 19, 2009.
- ^ ARC :: Jean-François Millet :: Le Nourrisson or L'enfant Malade
- ^ Jean-François Millet
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Crayons |
- PBS Kids movie about how crayons are made
- Timeline of Crayola crayon colors
- Inventors of crayons
- Timeline of the Crayola Company
Categories: Art materials | American inventions | Stationery | Crayola
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