In our garden we have a very nice garden seat with a teak table. The table is untreated. Very happy with the furniture, only the table looks so shitty sometimes because of the circles made by wet glasses. So I have been looking for nice coasters everywhere, but haven’t found them yet.
But in the summer, we’re using the table all the time, so desperately needed a temporarily solution this summer. That’s why I came on the idea of making coasters of iron beads.
It’s a very nice DIY project and while making the coasters I got one idea after another.
In the mean time I found out that coasters of iron beads are not a total solution. Because of the small holes in the beads, fluids can still go through. But it makes it a little bit better and for hot mugs it works good.
Beside that they look really great on my garden table;-)
I made the coasters with Hama iron beads. After some searching on the internet, I read a lot that these beads are the best. Another thing that I found is that is best to stay with one brand. If you mix beads of different brands, the beads don’t melt so good against each other, and the chance that your coaster breaks becomes bigger.
Wat do you need (for 9 coasters)
– Two bags of Hama iron beads white of 1000 pieces nr. 207-01
– Two bags of Hama black iron beads of 1000 pieces nr. 207-18
– A round mal (pegboard) on which you lay the beads before ironing (mine has a diameter of 15 cm).
– A piece of baking paper or ironing paper
– A big tweezer to pick up the beads
– A Iron
– Wooden plank or something else that can stand heat
How to:
– Put the white and the black beads both in a different bowl.
– Put your mal on a table. I searched on my mal what the middle dot was and colored this dot black with a marker.
– The total diameter of the coaster is 10 cm with the Hama beads, this is around 11 rows.
– I often started with the outside row and worked to the inside. Below you see for every coaster that I made a photo of the end result and of the beads lying on the mal. With these pictures you can make the coaster yourself.
– If your coaster is ready, then put your iron on cotton stand (medium/high heat). Don’t use the steaming options of your iron.
– Put the mal with the iron beads on the wooden plank and over that the baking paper.
– If your iron is warm, then iron carefully in circles over the baking paper. Don’t push too hard otherwise you coaster will become very flat. And try to push the coaster equally to make it flat. The ironing takes up to 30- 40 seconds.
– After that remove a little bit of the baking paper to see if the beads are melted together. If this is not the case, just iron longer. The more your beads melt, the flatter the coaster becomes, so be careful.
– If you’re satisfied, then remove the baking paper. Let the coaster cool down a bit. Then turn the mal upside down, so the coaster is with the good side up.
– Remove the mal.
– I put the baking paper again over the coaster and ironed it a little bit more, around 10 seconds. You can do this longer if you want to. The coaster becomes stronger, only the holes in the beads also smaller, which I didn’t like.
– Remove the baking paper again and leave the coaster flat on the wooden plank to cool down completely.
I tried to cool down one coaster under cold water, but it didn’t stay flat. This is not nice with a coaster so, with the others I just waited patiently.
I also had one coaster of which the beads didn’t melt so well. I ironed this one again and then it was ok.
I have no idea how long the coasters will remain intact, but for now we are using them for around three weeks, and they are heavily tested by my two year old who is throwing around the ones we don’t use;-) And all still intact!
Examples of 9 coasters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Greetz Claudia
My Socials Cakesandpumps
