A month or so ago I found this project through Pinterest (
here) that you could make glass-like hanging shapes using colored beads by melting them in the oven. There wasn't very specific directions, pretty much put your beads of choice in a pan and place in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. I mean, how hard can it be? While T's parents were in town his mom and I decided to give it a try...
We went to Michael's and purchased two large mixed bags of beads (found in the child craft area) for about $5 or $6 a bag. We also had a $5 off coupon. We came home, poured ourselves a glass of wine, and beaded (because we were not interested in watching golf).
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| We bought two large bags of cheap mixed colored plastic beads |
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| We separated them out based on the colors we wanted to use. |
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| My three sun catchers - round 1 |
I should mention that we turned all out beads the same way, lying flat on the bottom, none were not their sides. Our thinking behind this was that they would be flatter and melt together better than if they were just thrown in there looking all bumpy.
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| Her 4th themed sun catcher |
After she meticulously laid each bead where she wanted it in the pan (jk) :) We popped those babies int he oven for 20 minutes.... and waited. After 20 minutes the beads were not completely melted, we left them in for about 5-10 minutes longer and they were good to go.
*** I should mention that half the house had a plasticy smell to it while they were int he oven that lasted until we opened the windows and let it air out***
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| After |
Since we wanted to make multiple sizes, we use some glass containers I had as well.... they took the longest and for some reason the colors faded int he glass containers. I wouldn't recommend using glass containers because we had to work the product out of them... as in with a knife around the edges and then tried putting in cold water... finally they all came out.
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| You can see that the colors faded. |
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| I thought it was weird that the side that touched the pan had a matte finish, while the top side was smooth. |
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| Here they all are, we did two batches. |
T's mom had the Red/Clear/Blue ones and the small pink/purple one. I made the three yellow/green/clear ones and the multicolored one.
Of course T's first words were - what are you going to do with that (famous for this)...
After we found the fishing line I tied a knot on one end making a loop and hung these on the hooks we already had up from our ferns last year. (We decided against ferns this year since all we got out of them were three bird nests and dead ferns within two months)
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| Finished Product - standing about 5' away |
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| Finished product about 15' away |
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| Unless they are moving int he wind or stand still with the flat part facing you - sometimes you don't even see them |
This project was fun and relaxing... pretty much just sorting beads and putting them in a pan (while drinking wine). I think they turned out okay, I wish that they colors were more vibrant so I could see them from the road instead of having to be on the sidewalk before noticing them. If we try this again I would get the opaque beads and not the translucent ones.
What do y'all think?
