Beads and Shrinky Dinks
There are glass beads, clay beads, paper beads, plastic beads, and now, there are Shrinky Beads! Ok, Shrinky Dinks is plastic. I just thought that had the sound of something cool being discovered. You say that you don’t know what Shrinky Dinks plastic is. Are you serious? Member when you were a kid and the commercial would come on with two kids at the kitchen table drawing on clear plastic, cutting it out, then their mom would put the pieces in the oven. The camera moves in, and we see the shapes curl and magically shrink to the size of the dime? The two kids shocked, they witnessed this never before seen phenomenon. Seriously? Member when you bugged your mom for them? Member when you got them you just used the whole pack because it was so fun to see that it actually worked, begging your mom for more. Member? Member?
Ok for those of you who have grown up not knowing what it’s like to actually get up from the couch and turn on the t.v. set with a knob, and not a button, or actually go to the library and find a book using the Dewy Decimal System, or heaven forbid, walk to school, Shrinky Dinks were all the rage during, well, way before your parents were parents, and a apple was just a fruit, not a computer company ran by some super nerd who laughed his way all the way to the bank. Strictly for children, until they needed adult supervision for the oven in which the wonderful fun began.
So, back to the Shrink Beads. Now these lovely beads that you see were left over whole punches from a pair of earrings and a bracelet made from shrinky plastic. Keeping with my effort to reduce my carbon footprint, while still creating something nice, I wondered what they would look like if I shrunk them. I stuck the little suckers in my toaster oven I rescued off of a street corner across from my son’s middle school last year, and BAM!! Shrinky Beads! These little beauties are light, easy to work with, and can be used a variety of projects.
I liked the way these came out so much, that I plan on making some intentionally! I have already saved the punched holes from other Shrinky Dinks projects that I am working on according to color, and I will be putting them in the oven as the need arises.
