Hama Bead Jewellery Bowl - Mother's Day Crafts

You may have noticed we've become slightly Hama Bead obsessed in the My Mummy's Pennies house recently, they are a great fun, low cost craft material with almost endless possibilities so why not?

One thing I especially love about crafting with Hama Beads is that it appeals to both my children despite a 3 year age difference. Ben is six with co-ordination and fine motor difficulties so crafting with small beads is great for developing these skills, he also has a great creative flare and a love of patterns which can be expressed when crafting with Hama. Hama beads are also ideal for supporting his school work and we have recently been using them to help him visual his times tables.

My daughter is 3 and so far hasn't shown any of the developmental delays that Ben did, she is a whizz at popping the little beads on the peg boards and also loves creating patterns. We use Hama beads as an educational tool with her too, identifying colours and counting out the beads.

So anyway on to today's craft which would be ideal as a mothers day gift... (note to any Dad's who have left things to the last minute, send Mum off for a soak in the bath tomorrow and get crafty with the kids!)

Hama beads are ideal for children from aged three upwards but for some younger children filling a peg board can test their patience, so a great way to use them is to make Hama bead bowls.

I remember seeing this post from Lucy's Madhouse a while ago and it inspired me to try out something similar.

I have a few pieces of jewellery that I wear every day and take off when I go to bed at night, at the moment I just dump them on my bedside table but they can often slide off onto the floor so I've been wanting a nice little jewellery bowl to keep them in.

This is a really simple craft that I did together with my three year old daughter...

Step one

Find an ovenproof bowl and lightly grease it with oil

Step two 

Pour in the Hama Beads. We decided to do our bowl in the shape of a flower, so we separated our beads into different colours, and poured each colour in separately. We then shaped the outdide to look like petals and used cream beads to make and outline just one bead thick, along the edge of the petals. We also used a few cream beads in the centre to make the middle of the flower.

Step three

Bake!

Pop in a preheated oven at around 200 degrees for around 5 - 10 minutes but do keep an eye on it and keep checking as it will vary depending on how large your bowl is.

Step four

Allow to cool, When the bowl comes out of the over the beads will still be soft and very hot so wait until the bowl has cooled down completely and the beads have hardened before trying to remove as not only could you get a nasty burn you will bend your beads right out of shape!

So there we go; a lovingly made Mother's Day gift in four easy steps!

You could make these in different shapes and sizes and for a multitude of uses!

Do let me know what you make! I would love to see your creations...

This craft was made with beads we bought our self but the lovely folks at DKL Toys have sent us some sets to have fun with so look out for reviews of these coming very soon and why not check out the great selection of Hama sets on their website?