Emily got her first dose of Perler beads while I was away at Blogger Bash. It all started with Oak Hill Country Day Camp, where Emily made her first creation. That very same day she was being picked up by her grandparents from camp to head on down to Rhode Island for a sleepover. Emily somehow persuaded her granddad to take her to her favorite store on earth, Michael’s, to pick out a craft. Guess what she chose? Yup, a whole box of Perler beads and the rest is history.
When I came down to RI to meet up with them, the Stow kids had made so many wonderful creations and were so excited to show them all to me. Even Owen (age 4) was loving Perler beads.
These little tiny beads keep the whole family busy. Since their first discovery, the Stow kids have spent days creating all sorts of fun things with their Perler beads. Everyone’s gotten in on the Perler bead action, even Granddad, Grandma, Daddy and me! It takes FOREVER and a lot of patience to create the bigger ones. Since that first day, there have been about two more trips to Michael’s to get even more Perler necessities – like the HUGE board to create the HUGE PARROT! The parrot quickly became Daddy’s project and it took a couple of hours!
After a Perler project has been laid out on the board, it must be ironed to fuse the beads together. Most Perler kits come with a special sheet of paper for ironing. However, regular parchment paper also works great. After placing the paper over the creation, a dry iron on medium heat is used to gently heat the beads until they start to fuse. The beads start to become visible through the paper as they melt. The trick is to iron the entire creation evenly so the beads melt just enough so they stick to their neighbors. Once the first side is fused, the design is carefully removed from the peg board and flipped over for ironing on the other side. Daddy has been doing all the ironing for the Stow kids, here are a few of his tips:
Jazheel Cohleen