Wax Landforms
Kenton had made wax models as a kid and knew it would be a great way to end his Geology unit with an art project. We construced 3D models of landscapes featuring all the landforms the girls had learned about
First we made the water landforms by melting different shades of blue & white crayons in pans and marbeling with toothpicks.
We created mountains, plateaus, cliffs, and hills using funnels and homemade cardboard molds. We whipped the wax with a handblender to create snow for the mountains and grass on the hills. Then we shaped them with hot knives.
mold making
mountain shaping
snow caps
whipped land
Next we made candles out of the wax and then lit them to drip an archipelago and isthmus in our ocean. We also made a candle volcano and lit it to demonstrate how lava flows shape landforms.
volcano candle
island dripping
final touches
The final step was photographing the completed model, importing them into photoshop and having the girls create a legend to label all of the landforms.
Then we mounted them on a wooden canvas as a permanent art display.
Despite all the hot wax and knives, there was only one casualty:
RIP Scrap Wax Hulk.
RIP Scrap Wax Hulk.
