How to Make Acropora Coral Out of Crayons and Paper Plates - Scenic Artists' Tips and Tricks

If you are preparing set pieces for the musical Titanic, you may want to prepare some pieces that look like coral. There are many different types of coral. One genus is Acropora (or more accurately, Acroporidae) coral. While there are some corals of this genus that vary in look, there is one look that tends to be prevalent.

One of many species of Acropora Coral

This Acropora coral can be made with a flat surface like heavy duty paper plates and crayons.

In order to make set pieces that look like Acropora Coral, you will need the following items.

1. Brown crayons such as 50 Brown Crayons Bulk - Single Color Crayon Refill - Regular Size 5/16" x 3-5/8". (You may want different shades of browns and reds as well - look at pictures to determine what color crayons you'd like).
2. Heavy duty paper plates such as 100% Compostable White 10-inch Paper Plates, 75-Plates, Heavy-Duty Premium Quality Disposable Plate
3. Heavy duty scissors such as Wiss W10TM SCISSOR,FULL METAL,TITANIUM COATED,10"
4. Multi-purpose lighters such as Bic Multipurpose Lighters, 4 Pack
5. Optionally, you may want a hot glue gun such as ccbetter Upgraded Mini Hot Melt Glue Gun with 30pcs Glue Sticks,Removable Anti-hot Cover Glue Gun Kit with Flexible Trigger for DIY Small Craft Projects & Sealing and Quick Daily Repairs 20-watt,Blue

Here's how you make Acropora coral:

1. First, if you want the surface to be a different shape than just round, cut your paper plate to the shape you'd like.
2. Peel the labels off of the crayons.
3. Now, break the crayons by hand to the general length you'd like. Remember that the length will shorten a bit when you make the coral.
4. Hold a piece of crayon onto the paper plate. Use the multi-purpose lighter to melt some of the crayon so that the wax gets to a liquid at the bottom. Once that happens, let the crayon rest in the wax.
5. If you want, you can use the hot glue gun to glue the crayon to the plate and make it more secure.
6. Repeat steps four and five, putting pieces of crayons in different places until your plate or piece of plate is completely covered and it looks like the acropora coral that you are trying to mimic.
7. If you need more pieces of coral, make more surfaces and repeat steps four through six.

If you are wondering, the exact type of acropora coral that you can mimic in this way are Acropora nana, Acropora tenuis, Acropora nasuta, and Acropora monticulosa. While up close, there are more details to these corals, on the stage, broken crayons melted or glued onto a flat surface will mimic the far away look just fine.

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