We have several crocheted monkeys in crazy colours hanging around our home because … well… I love monkeys… This one was given to me last Friday as a surprise gift from my goddaughter, Iben. I absolutely love it… She made it out of perler beads and I think it's awesome... it makes me smile just looking at it :-).
Writing these lines made me curious about the origin of the perler beads. But first - a little bit about the perler beads and how they are used:
Perler beads are used together with a beading plate where you put plastic beads in different colors in a pattern. It´s almost like mosaic. When you have finished your desired design, you can iron the surface of the beads, and the heat from the iron causes the plastic beads to melt together (the perler plate can then be reused for another design, since the heat from the iron only causes the beads to melt.
How was it inventet?
The perler bead was invented by a swedish man called Gunnar Knutsson in the 1960s in Vällingby, which is a suburban district in Västerort in the western part of Stockholm Municipality. Gunnar experimented with the Indian pearls and put them on a piece of wood with small spikes. Later he patented a perler bead in plastic.
In the beginning making perler beads was part of a therapy for the old people but soon it also became popular among children.
BTW the word "Perler" means "Beads" in both the Danish and the Swedish language.
