COIT’s Guide to Removing Crayon Stains - History and Facts
If you have young ones in the house, or if kids ever visit your home, chances are you’re quite familiar with the paper and crayons that can often take over your kitchen table, right? And no matter how hard you try, it seems inevitable that any one of these crayon colors somehow finds a way to leave its mark on your plush, clean carpeting. Yikes!
Well, thanks to this do-it-yourself stain removal guide from COIT, you’ll have a few handy solutions to try when you’re wondering how to remove crayon stains.
Before we dive into specific crayon stain removal techniques, let’s learn a bit more about the ingredients in crayons.
What Are Crayons Made of?
When you’re thinking about removing crayon stains, it’s helpful to know the ingredients in crayons so you understand what type of chemicals you’re trying to remove. Typically, crayons contain colored wax or charcoal; more specifically, they’re usually made of petroleum paraffin wax.
How Are Crayons Made?
To make a crayon, paraffin wax is first heated and then cooled. This is done so the wax reaches a temperature in which it can be dyed and manufactured into – you guessed it – a crayon! To find out more about the “Life of an American Crayon”, check out this video Crayola made to give you a closer look into how crayons are made.
The History of Crayons
The first crayons actually date back thousands of years to the Egyptian times. Egyptians figured out a way to take hot beeswax and color pigment and bind color into stone, which is also known as encaustic painting. The Romans and Greeks were also known to do this. Do you think they had a solution to the question of how to remove crayon stains? Who knows!
In Europe, the first signs of crayons date back to 1495, where famous artist and thinker Leonardo da Vinci used the first cylinder shaped crayons made of charcoal and oil.
Conte crayons, which originated in Paris, were used in the late 1790s. Conte crayons are basically a mix between a pastel and a paraffin wax crayon.
Crayola Crayons is Born
So when did the American crayon companies get their start? On June 10, 1903, Binney & Smith, which is now known as Crayola, came out with their own line of wax crayons. Alice Binney (Edwin Binney’s wife) was the one who thought of the name Crayola. She took the French word for chalk – “craie” – and combined it with the first part of the name of the oily paraffin wax called “oleaginous”. And waaaalaaaa! “Crayola”, a brand that’s still famous for its crayons, was born!
With over 132 colors, Crayola shows no signs of slowing when it comes to dominating the crayon market!
Now that you know a bit more about what crayons are made of and how they came to exist over thousands of years, you can approach that stubborn crayon stain armed with a bit more background information.
Check out COIT’s guide to crayon stain removal to get step-by-step guidance
