We did them too. We also made a hole in the top and bottom and connected them together to make a belt. I don't remember using beads in mine. But I would think plastic ones would melt easy enough. Take one and put it in the oven on aluminum foil and see if it melts.

I never heard of that ! You just stand them up and they melt down? I wish I Could be of more help - sorry- but it does sound interesting !

I think the bottles are low melt at something like 200 degrees. The clear bottles with beads turned out really pretty.

I tried to melt some of the acrylic starburst and round beads yesterday. I had to melt it at a higher temp (300 degrees). It fused together nicely, but I didn't leave it in to melt completely. It would make a pretty stained glass ornament by itself.

If anyone does try this at home, you do have to keep a watch on it so you don't burn the house down or die of toxic fumes.

Is melting plastic considered an art. I have been trying to find information on this to get different ideas, and not much luck with that. Thanks for the great idea.

I couldn't find much on it either. I'd love to have more ideas to work with.

I did some searching and found this. I haven't tried it though. Sounds fun! The site also lists a lot of different things you can try to melt! Here's what they said:

MELTING ...or SLUMPING ...or SHRINKING plastics

melting

The general idea for making these (Rx or medical, amber or clear bottles) is to soften them into a flattened blob with colorful accents.
.....The colors are achieved by either adding colored crayon slivers (shave the 'paperless' crayons with a vegetable peeler, etc.) &/or by adding small, colorful plastic beads (or bits of raw or baked clay, etc. or just anything that can stand the temp. of the oven or will melt in an interesting way).
..15 years ago, most prescription bottles were 'clear'...but amber ones should be fine too (but do go for the lightest amber you have)
...Remove any label residue (GooGone or WD40)....thorougly wash & dry
...stand the bottle upright on a non-stick, oven-safe flat pan (or could use aluminum foil?)...then fill each bottle 1/4 full with an assortment of your color filler
...bake (275 degrees or higher?) ...the process happens pretty fast so watch diligently....as soon as the bottles have become flattened blobs, remove tray from oven (if more softening is needed, quickly return tray to the hot oven)
...avoid overhandling the hot plastic shapes with oven mitts to avoid creating unsightly, raised marks.
...to make hanging holes after cooling... either 'melt' a hole using a heated metal skewer, or drill one (create holes from front to back).
...you can speed up the cooling of the plastic blobs by dumping them straight from the oven into a bowl of icy water; this sudden shock of hot to cold also might help to create some unusually curvacious pieces.

Here is a link that might be useful: glass attic melting site

This sounds like fun. Have any of you tried to melt any plastic or plastic bottles? If so, let us know how it turned out, please.

I just tried this project with two water tubes (like clear medicine bottles) and they actually turned out pretty cool!

I'm just trying to remember how to do the crayons in the medicine bottles and melt,help please!!