I love pearl plates. What I don’t think is particularly cool is that you can feel a bit limited in relation to what exactly you are going to use the finished pearl plates for… And this applies to both children and adults. Here comes a DIY on a wall clock made of Artkal beads. A perfect summer holiday project, now that we know there will probably be a few rainy days every now and then. Let your child design his own clock for the room, make one yourself for the office… Or share one for the summer house. The watch gets a wonderfully playful expression and depending on who puts the pearls on the plate, it gets its very personal expression! I myself teach in a secondary school and one of the things I love most about my job is to see how proud they can be of the result. It is always a success when we make things they really want to use at home in their rooms.

All you need is:

Artkal beads
A large bead plate (mine is assembled from two plates, which can be bought at most hobby stores)
Scissors
Pencil
A thick piece of cardboard the same size as the bead plate
Baking paper
Iron
Glue gun (You can also use any other type of liquid glue)
Clockwork – (I actually ordered it to make this DIY cork clock. Now my cork obsession has faded a bit and it needed a redesign. The nice thing about buying a loose movement is that you can always replace the dial and use it again and again.)

English recap

Make a DIY clock of Artkal beads.
I love hama beads, but I miss being able to use them! Now I have made a DIY hama bead clock. You can make one yourself for the home office or let your child design his own watch for his room. It is also a great gift for the grandparents. All you need is: Artkal Beads – A large beads plate – Scissors – Pencil – A thick piece of cardboard (the same size as the bead plate) – Baking paper – Iron – Glue – Clockwork

I have chosen to give the watch a geometric expression with triangles in different pink tones mixed with yellow, blue and grey. The older children can play with colors and motifs, so the expression is far from being “bead plate look”. Let the smaller children make a party firework and if the children are very young, the beads can be replaced with maxi hama.
Feel free to mark the area to work within, I have chosen to make my clock square. You can make it in just the shape you want.
If, like me, you use a watch movement with black hands, remember to avoid completely dark colors as the hands will be difficult to see on a dark background.

And if I have to say something.. (I guess I really should) I strictly follow the rule that hama pearls must lie in a large pear slurry and not be colour-sorted. Especially for children, there is an incredibly good immersion and training in having to find the right colors. For me, that is the most important thing about making bead plates. I remember that if, as a child, I found it difficult to keep my concentration in the pearl finder, I could coax a little help to find the pearls I was missing. It is not crazy at all to be more about a pearl plate. Then if you have them sorted by colour, I challenge you to close your eyes and turn the bottom upside down!

When the bead plate is finished, find the center and remove the 4 beads in the middle so that a cross is formed. This is where the clockwork will sit. You can use a ruler to find the center or you can count your way forward.
If the children are small, remember that this is where you really come in with a helping hand, now you have to iron, glue and screw.

Turn on the iron and iron the pearl plate with baking paper in between. You only need to iron one side of the pearl plate! On the other hand, it must be ironed a lot and well on that side. – So much so that the holes almost disappear.
It is important that it is ironed a lot, partly because it must be able to last and partly because the clockwork cannot gape over more than approx. 5 mm in thickness. Check if whether the movement can be tightened around the pearl plate before proceeding. If it can’t be tightened, you just iron the beads more flat.

When the pearl plate is ironed, turn it over so that the side you have not ironed is facing up. Place the pearl plate on the cardboard and mark the corner of the pearl plate. Cut out the cardboard to fit the pearl plate and also cut a hole in the middle so that there is room for the clockwork.

Turn on the glue gun and glue the cardboard to the back of the pearl plate. If you don’t have a glue gun, you can use school glue or contact glue.

Now all that remains is to assemble the movement on the front and back of the pearl plate respectively. The summer holidays can be long for many children. Do it if necessary. for a joint project to upgrade the nursery. Use a few rainy days to declutter, clean and make small changes together. Move around, paint a bookcase and make a clock out of hama beads!

If you want more personal decorations in the children’s room, then with an ink-free print set you can create small memories without the use of ink and paint. It will be much faster and easier to make prints of your children’s hands and feet. The ink-free sets are free of bad chemicals and can be used from birth。