Melted Plastic Beads

Currently I'm playing with my oven. I'm in a dorm with five other girls, and they're all out....which means I can burn things and they wont know. Muhahaha.
Today we're going to be making melted bead bowls.

First off, buy plastic beads. I think they're called pony beads.

You'll also need crappy cookie sheets! Don't use your best ones! And foil. Someone told me that parchment paper is okay too maybe, but no wax paper. No idea why wax paper is useful, it just catches on fire and burns when you put it in the oven. Also living in a dorm, when the fire alarm goes off the whole building goes off and then the fire department comes. At least at home you can hit the fire alarm with a broom  till it shuts up!

Okay, so cookie sheets, foil, oven mitts, and burn cream!

Unfortunately my oven is slightly broken and old school. It doesn't tell me when I've reached the temperature and there's no window to see what's inside the oven, AND the fan doesn't work.

(Also, this project smells bad, so open the windows!)

Preheat oven to 450

Get cookie sheet and cover completely with foil. Make sure the foil lays down smooth.
Get beads and pour onto sheet. Make sure they lay evenly and that they're all laying next to each other, like in a grid pattern or something.

Put in oven. Now some say twenty mins till they're complete. I just check mine every five mins when I can. Just keep it in the oven till it looks all melted.

It's going to  come out smoking, so make sure you have your fan on. Now let it cool. It'll make some crackling noises,  that's the thermal shock kicking in. After it's cooled completely it'll pop right off the foil, and out of your pan or cookie sheet. If you get excited and try taking it out before then (which I did) you will get burnt, and the plastic is still sticky.

These are a couple of mine all cooled.

Now what you need is an object you want the plastic to mold to. Make sure it's not plastic! What I use is a little glass container. Cover said container with foil!

Place foil covered jar on a cookie sheet that also has foil on it.

Place back in oven and just keep checking it every min. If you have a window on your oven I'd imagine that would be very helpful.

You want the plastic to melt so it takes the shape of the jar.

I also used a Starbucks bottle. The plastic labels did melt, so perhaps take those off before you stick it in the oven!

See! Melts to the shape. Also notice my mistake. It melted too much you can see it dripping off the collective mass of plastic. This is because I left it in too long. I was playing on my computer and not paying attention. So the second part to this is very important. While the plastic is molding to the shape, stay in the kitchen and watch it like a hawk!

Again, after it comes out of the oven make sure you let it cool completely before you mess with it. Sometimes you can let it half cool and get a rag or use you oven mitts and you can mold the plastic by hand. But again, be aware what you are doing. I've already burnt my thumb, and my palm.

Things you can use your plastic creations for. Business card holder (if you have a square bowl to mold off of), vase, candy dish, key holder, candles, and anything else you can think of.

My summer roommate taught me how to do this and she was making cookie dishes with them. She also didn't burn herself, because she's smart! Here I am with melted plastic sticking my fingers in it and wondering why my hand is all blistered!

Other helpful stuff. I think the clear beads work best, with my solid colors especially the white, they burned. They turned a nasty brown and smoked really bad. Alphabet beads were fun, I mixed them in with clear beads and they turned out cool. I also used plastic buttons on one. They didn't melt very good. Maybe made with a higher class plastic? I mixed them in with regular beads, so the regular ones melted and held the buttons in place. It turned out looking okay, but it wasn't what I was expecting. My summer roommate also tried using seed beads and they didn't melt either. I told her that's because they were made out of glass, but considering I couldn't get plastic buttons to melt, I could have just made that all up!

Hopefully I've explained everything.