Friendly Plastic Swirl Beads

I had a brilliant idea one night this week. It was one of those light bulb moments! You know the kind..... the ones that come just as you're drifting off to sleep.

Normally when an idea like that hits I would reach over to jot it down in my Little Book of Big Ideas but four months after moving into our new house, we still don't have bedside tables and so my Little Book was not there. So I went over and over the idea in my head, working out every little detail hoping I might at least remember something about the idea come morning. Do I start with a basic cylinder bead? Should I roll it into a ball? When should I add the stripes? Do I use the hot water method or stick with the heat gun...... so many questions. It's a wonder I got any sleep at all.

So what was my brilliant idea, I hear you ask? Well, take a peek below!

These are my first experiments.... you can just make out the beginnings of a swirl forming. Not bad, but I'm sure I can improve the technique. So I tried a completely different method for the second batch and got much better results.... a swirl is definitely happening here! That's much more like what I had in mind. It's a similar effect to polymer clay swirl beads but it takes a totally different technique to achieve the effect in Friendly Plastic. I'm calling them Swirl Beads because they look just like their polymer clay counterparts.

As with most of the beads I make from Friendly Plastic these will get a coat of resin so that they can be turned into jewellery and then they'll be ready for my next jewellery project.

I'm off to play some more with this technique so I have some finished pieces to share with you soon.

'Til then,
Myléne