Crayola trivia

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 24, 2008

-- Crayola crayons are made from paraffin wax and colored pigments. But there are some secret ingredients that help account for the distinctive smell.

-- About 3 billion Crayola crayons are produced each year -- an average of 12 million wax sticks a day. They are sold in 80 countries and packaged in 12 languages.

-- Crayola crayons come in 120 colors altogether, including 23 reds, 20 greens, 19 blues, 14 oranges, 11 browns, 8 yellows, 2 grays, 2 coppers, 2 blacks, 1 white, 1 gold, 1 silver.

-- Most color names are taken from the U.S. Commerce Department's National Bureau of Standards book called Color: Universal Language and Dictionary of Names. Many names are borrowed from artists' paints, some are named by employees and some by kids and the public.

-- The average child in the U.S. will wear down about 730 crayons by his or her 10th birthday (that would be 11.4 boxes of 64) -- enough to cover an NBA basketball court.

-- In addition to crayons, Crayola makes about 600 million colored pencils, 465 million markers, 110 million sticks of chalk, 9 million Silly Putty eggs and 1.5 million bottles of paint each year.

-- Artist Grant Wood, famous for his American Gothic portrait, entered a Crayola coloring contest in the early 1900s and won. He later said that gave him the encouragement he needed to pursue an art career.