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Artisan Chris Salomone is an avid woodworker known for his popular videos showcasing his DIY projects. Using modern lines, his striking furniture designs have a clean finish that highlights the beauty of natural wood. But recently, Salomone had some colorful fun when he made an inlaid table. Inspired by trendy resin waterfall tables, he opted for a more common material accent—crayons.
The idea to use crayons came when Salomone saw some of the broken wax sticks sitting in his house. “I thought, ‘I wonder what would happen if I melted and inlaid these in some wood,’ ” he explained on YouTube. The test worked, and a couple of months later, he decided to scale up his plan. Salomone would create a table and use crayons in place of where you’d normally see resin.
The woodworker takes us through his process in a mesmerizing video. He begins by milling walnut wood and prepping it to glue it into a larger slab. He then divides one board into sections so that he could plan for where each of the “breakpoints” is going to be and where the crayon river will flow. Afterward, Salomone draws a waterway design onto the board with a Sharpie and uses a router tool to carve the river’s path.
Once the river is excavated, it’s time to melt the wax. Using a set of Crayola 96 crayons, Salomone selects his favorites and uses a heat gun to liquify them into the path. “There was a definite middle ground that I was going for,” he says. “I wanted the colors to blend a little but not too much. Kind of like a marbling where any two meet.” Once cool, he scrapes away the wax overflow and smooths the overall piece with a planer.
With the accent done, Salomone assembles the table by cutting the pieces with beveled edges to ensure that there is a continuous wood grain running from the top to the bottom. Doing this, however, generates heat and causes part of the wax river to melt. He tries to repair by adding more wax but ultimately decides to “live with the gap” that the melting caused. Then, it’s onto sanding and finishing. The result is a colorful table that allowed Salomone to experiment with a new idea.
Watch Salomone’s detailed explanation of his crayon inlaid table, below.
Artisan Chris Salomone created an inlaid table inspired by trendy epoxy resin river tables.
It started as an experiment to see how crayons would react if melted onto wood…
… and it transformed into an entire project.
Salomone first milled walnut wood and cut a path for the crayon river.
He then selected some of his favorite crayons and melted them into the waterway.
Afterward, Salomone scraped away the overflow wax, leveled the surface, and assembled the rest of the table.
Cutting the pieces of wood did, however, melt some of the crayons. Salomone tried to repair it but ultimately decided to leave it be.
Once everything was put together, he sanded and finished the furniture.
Watch Salomone’s entire process in the video below.
Chris Salomone: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Patreon
My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Chris Salomone.
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