When they come out of the oven let them cool for approximately one minute. Pop the beads into the oven for approximately 18 minutes. This is great for young kids or kids with a shorter attention span. They don’t have to be turned a certain way. Take a handful of beads and lay them on your cookie sheet, making sure they are all touching. No silicone bowl is needed just a cookie sheet with parchment paper. They are colorful, sparkly, and look way more sophisticated than a pony bead should. I let the bowls cool inside their silicone molds and then flipped them over and the bead bowl will just fall out. “Pour and Smush” turned out almost identical to my “Careful and Controlled” method. We put both bowls in the oven (previously heated to 375 degrees) and baked them for approximately 18 minutes. I call it “Pour & Smush.” His beads were facing every which way and were mostly, pretty much, one layer deep. He used the method preferred by most six year old boys. My six year old dove right in and made his own bowl. This set of four Le Creuset Silicone Prep Bowls would be perfect for this! Why not? I made a “protoytype” by neatly lining all the beads up in concentric circles, hole side up, one layer deep, inside a small silicone measuring bowl. I have seen bowls made of melted Perler beads on Pinterest but never pony beads.

The plastic tolerated the drilling just fine.Īfter pouring the pony beads into a silicone measuring bowl for easy finding of colors I realized that little bowl might hold another project all its own. Those that didn’t have a hole we just drilled using a hand drill. This Maxi Nature Set of 24 silicone baking cups would be perfect because there are three different shapes of baking cups!īake at 375 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.Įven after melting most of our sun catchers naturally had a little space between the beads to thread a ribbon to hang them. Just flip the silicone over and they fall right out. The silicone is awesome because there is nothing for the beads to stick to. We used silicone baking cups and filled them with one layer of pony beads. It really doesn’t matter if the beads are all upright or on their sides, they still melt together nicely. My kiddos and I started making ornaments (or sun catchers depending on the time of the year.) We quickly realized there was plenty of fun ways to manipulate these little boogers and turn them into something unrecognizable. Couple that with their bright colors and perfect for little finger size and you’ve got a winning art material! Bead crafts here we come! Pony beads are cheap an can be found about anywhere.

Pony bead patterns free printable