Melty bead goodness
While looking through Craftster recently, I discovered a great new hobby: Bead melting! As described here (on page 3 there's some particularly nice specimens). You basically take the cheap plastic beads (pony beads) from Walmart or any craft store, clear and/or solid colored, arrange them in any oven safe bowl/plate, and melt them in the oven (350-400F for anything between 10-30 Minutes). The result is a stained-glass-like effect in solid plastic. Since the melting plastic emits some pretty bad and possibly toxic vapours, I've been using my toaster oven on the balcony for this, finishing each session by heating a bowl of water and vinegar in the oven to get rid of any smells. So what can you make out of this?
Bowls and Plates
(the pointy edges still have to be smoothed down):
(the pointy edges still have to be smoothed down):
and Suncatchers
(although I haven't quite figured out yet how to get a hole in those):
(although I haven't quite figured out yet how to get a hole in those):
posted by bellaconda @ October 17, 2006
4 Comments:
Very pretty.
Oh man, I want that pink one.
thank you, thank you :-)
I have done the same, setting up the toaster oven on the balcony. To drill a hole get yourself a Dremel or other rotary tool, My Dremel also has sanding and buffing heads.
I've added regular seed beads.
Tomorrow I'll use wire and plasticine, and I'll be seeing what my huge collection of plastic buttons do.
all the best
Ardelle Hawkes, Vancouver \canada
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