Zirrly Super Beads - Spinning Tops are a great new concept that take bead crafts to a whole new level. Zirrly Super Beads use water fusion to "glue" the beads together. No heat required!! After burning myself on bead projects before, I was very very excited to get started with the beads!
Our kit included not only the beads in multiple colors, but also small plastic placement boards, suggested patterns, the plastic top pieces, a small bead removal tool, and a small water bottle.
Once we decided what we each wanted to do, we began opening the bags and making our designs. Caty decided to completely create her own design. This was the part that made me nervous. I wasn't sure she could handle the small beads and placing them. But since the boards feature pegs, she was easily able to place the beads and not get frustrated if she tapped the tray accidentally. She had fun creating her rainbow spinning top.
Her design just kept growing. I was very surprised that with the size of the beads that she did not have any troubles with placement. If you have a student who is struggling with fine motor skills, this was really a fun project for Caty and I to work on together. It challenged her and she got a fun toy that she created for all her hard work.
I on the other hand, decided to play it safe and used a pattern card to create my top.
I forgot to get a picture of the projects drying on the boards. But once we finished our designs, she spritzed water directly on the beads. We may have gotten too much water on, since the suggested dry time was a minimum of 30 minutes. We checked our boards after 30 minutes and they were still damp. So we ended up just leaving them to dry overnight.
The next morning, I was easily able to pull our designs from the plastics boards. There are very easy to read and understand instructions on how to install the plastic top pieces. This literally took just a few seconds. And we had finished products to play with. One of my concerns was that by spraying with water the glue substance on the beads would be sticky and stink, thus never wanting to touch the top ever again. The "magic fusion" with the water does not make them sticky. They really magically just fused together.
Look at them go!!
Unfortunately Caty's rainbow top started to separate. I remembered reading about how to fix this, but was skeptical if it would work. To re-activate the adhesive, you simply lightly spritz water on the area in question and reattach it. Seemed simple enough, but can you "reactivate" glue? was my question.
Yep!! This little mishap was easily fixed in just a matter of the glue drying again!
Zirrly also offers a Mega pack of Super Beads that would keep your student busy for several hours. I am ordering the Zirrly Mega pack of Super Beads for upcoming projects. The Super Beads are available to purchase in several different project kits including 3D art:
I can see Zirrly Super Beads being a great addition for project fairs, like geography, science, history, or even literature fairs. Kids could use Super Beads create some pretty amazing designs for these types of project fairs. They would also make an super fun slumber party or playdate craft to make with friends.
The Super Beads - Spinning Tops were so much fun! They were easy to use and worked so well. The possibilities of design creations are endless!
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to review the products listed above. Click on the link below to see how they used Super Beads with their kids and how did their projects turn out.
No comments:
Post a Comment