Melted Pony Bead Decorative Bowls

     Here's an easy craft with very pretty results.  If you enjoyed my fuse bead bowls, you'll probably like this project as well.  I got my inspiration for the classic melted bead bowl from Rainbow Sparkled blog and for the wavy melted bead bowl from Art Camp blog.

Note: The melting beads can get rather smelly, so make sure your work space is well ventilated.

Classic Melted Bead Bowl
Materials:
*Pony beads
*Ceramic or metal oven safe bowl
*Cooking spray
*Baking sheet

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
*Spray the inside of the bowl with a generous amount of cooking spray.
*Take a couple of handfuls of fuse beads and drop them into the bowl.
*Smooth out the beads so that you have only one layer of beads.  The beads should for the most part migrate up the sides of the bowl on their own if you press on a spot with multiple layers of beads.
*Place the bowl on a cookie sheet.
*Pop in the oven and cook for about 25-35 minutes, or until the beads have melted sufficiently to your liking.  I took mine out after 25 minutes, so it still had a lot of bumps to it, but if you don't like that aesthetic you can melt it for longer and it should smooth out more.
*Let sit for about 10 minutes, then place inside the sink and very slowly add cold water.  Be very careful with this step, since the beads or the bowl could potentially crack at this stage of the process due to the temperature differential.
*Fill the entire bowl with water.  After doing this my bead bowl just popped out of the ceramic bowl without any difficulty, but it might be harder if you melt your bowl for a longer period of time.  Let cool before handling.

Wavy Melted Bead Bowl
Materials:
*Pony beads
*Aluminum foil
*Cooking spray
*Baking sheet
*Large drinking glass
*Oven mitts

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
*Line a circular baking sheet with aluminum foil, then spritz with cooking spray.
*Arrange beads on the circular baking sheet in a pattern of your choosing in a circular or hexagonal formation.  The result could look something like this:

*Pop into the oven.  I heated mine for 25 minutes and by the end of that my beads were thoroughly melted and formed a thin layer of plastic.
*While the beads are melting, cover the top of a drinking glass with aluminum foil and spray generously with cooking spray.
*Once the beads have melted, pull the pan out of the oven.
*Using oven mitts, center your melted plastic creation on top of the foil covered drinking glass, with the plastic facing downward (so that you will be touching the aluminum foil and not the plastic itself).  Quickly mold the plastic into a bowl shape.
*Place the melted bead bowl in the sink and trickle cold water over it.  Once it becomes cool enough to handle, peel off the aluminum foil.  The foil should come off fairly easily, but it might get stuck in some of the crevices.  Peel slowly in these regions.