If you have children under the age of 10 you might be familiar with these little guys, the HAMA beads. These are little plastic coloured beads resembling tiny macaroni, which come in a few bright colours (red, orange, yellow, pink, violet, blue, green, brown, white and black).These colourful beads are sold in tubs of... oh... a gazillion, and are guaranteed to escape the container they initially entered your home in, and feel free to explore your apartment/house from the hidden crevices of your sofa to the bathtub (still can't explain that one).
My children initially brought home from school small resin-like works of art, which resembled a plastic mosaic. These began as odd shaped monsters, though my kids insisted they were flowers, cats, fish etc. As I am the 'creative guru' in our family, I try to encourage my off springs to tap into their creative side as much as possible, so even when they bring me smudges of plastic, I 'oooh' and 'aaahhh' over them with great parental support. By-the-way: I also psycho-analise my children via their art; if they bring home smiling, happy, colourful creations, I know they are happy too.
The little plastic 'monsters' evolved into stars, cars, even jaguars. I got curious as to, how the children created the mosaics, so I asked them to show me, and as they love to teach their parents for a change, they gave me the full tutorial.
The plastic pieces used in the children's creations are the HAMA beads... 'explorers of the sofa' and 'bathtub archeologists' which I mentioned at the beginning of this particular blog.
Naively, I agreed to buy a tub of these beads, the trays one uses to compose the 'masterpiece' on - it looks a bit like a miniature fachir's bed of nails - and we would make amazing art, as a family, therefore promoting unity and collaboration.
Once in the house, the HAMAs were put in a tray, and we began to create colourful shapes. My three girls, each working hard on their own tray, and I on my own. My 'mother's heart' swelled with pride and joy.
A half hour into our project, the girls became bored with the project, and abandoned me with 4 trays to complete (I couldn't dismantle them, the kids would have cried for weeks over them). The projects - yes, all four - took about 3 hours to complete. By the last one - mine of course - I was quite the expert (see photo) and became so enamored by the new art form I had come across accidentally, that now I'm thinking of different ways of further expand the possibilities of this magic HAMA bead.
The children have proceeded to play with the beads throughout the apartment, stringing them as necklaces and tossing them at each other like pebbles, and thus brings us to how the beads have managed to find their way into the sofa, sock drawer, kitchen sink, pillow case and of course the bathtub. Evil, EVIL HAMA beads! They're taking over my homeeeee.
Actually, I'm addicted to them now, I can't stop creating with them. They're heaps of fun. Even for us grownups.
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