Water Beads for Vases - 5,000 Pcs Gel Balls Pink - Decorative Sand for Vase Fillers - Decor Home Accessories for Floating Candles Making Wedding Party Decoration

We placed about 40 in a pile in a stemless wine glass half filled with water. They sat in a heap and when we looked about an hour later they had reorganised themselves into a tightly packed single layer hexagonal lattice. They continued to swell and the lattice pushed itself up the sides of the glass still in a single layer, following the curvature of the glass, almost like a lining. Fortunately, we had a visiting doctor in the house who was able to explain to the kids the physics of what was going on, and I wish I could recall to recount here! Eventually, childish fingers couldn't resist pushing them off the glass and we were left with a glass of perfectly spherical orange jelly balls neatly arranged in several layers, each retaining its lattice. It was curiously fascinating checking in every hour or so on their progress. We have now decanted several into a flattish dish where it is impossible to disrupt the lattice they want to be in; we have drained the water to see what happens as they desiccate.The beads are ~4mm diameter and swell over about 6 hours to ~15mm. All the beads absorbed water, no duds, and grew to the same size within a mm or so. They are very slippery in the hand, and quite bouncy on a tiled surface, so you'd need to keep track of them so the dog can't eat them.They were actually purchased to go in a vase, but for under a fiver we also got a pretty good bonus educational experience which truly intrigued our kids. One of them drew parallels with a honeycomb, and the other then proceeded to think about the arrangement of the closely packed seeds on the heads of the sunflowers we grew earlier in the year. So we're googling Fibonacci and 'order in nature' to keep their interest. Who'd have thought!So if you buy these for a vase, retain a handful to show your kids what happens!

loved that they all came in a simple bag only downside is that these do not grow as large as i would want only a few mill larger than the balls come

Not as big as I thought but they are a good size

Bought to help me make Halloween decoration,they did not dissapoint

These come in a little packet and the beads are tiny, so it’s hard to imagine there are 20,000 in there that will become marble-like with a little water. It’s handy that they take up next to no space so you can store them easily until they’re needed, too.These are mixed colours and I love the array you get. To use, get a bowl and fill with water (don’t think the temperature matters but someone please correct me if I’m wrong). Figure how many beads you’d like and just make sure the bowl is big enough to accommodate their growth. Pop the beads in and just wait. It takes a few hours so I’d just leave for 4-5 hours and then drain them. They work really well and it’s cool seeing the transformation from tiny dark-coloured balls into these marble-like almost translucent colours.I love the versatility of these and how you could use them for an array of craft projects or home decor ideas. We’ve recently moved to a new house so I’m going to be using these for decor, firstly in vases and then go from there. I’ll try to update the review with photos when I can in future. The price - £5.99 at the time of writing - is excellent for how many you get. We used to have these marble-like things many years ago for decoration in little dishes but they’d cost nearly as much (and that was over 10 yrs ago) for one little pack. To do them yourself takes minimal effort, they look amazing and you get oodles for the money so I’m thrilled with them.

These water beads are great for filling in the flower vase to hold everything in place. Only a small amount is needed, as they expand a lot after leaving them in a water for a couple of hours.

As you can see from my photo the dehydrated balls are tiny, so I'm not surprised that you get 20,000 in a packet not much bigger than a pack of cards (although I am not counting them to check this!).They take about the same amount of time to soak up water as any other water beads, but they are slightly smaller than your average ones.They are also a soft green, not the bold colours that you see in the listing photo, so be aware if you are looking for bright colours these may not be for you.

Price when reviewed: £ 6.99 for clear beads.Apparently, there are 20,000 beads in the bag, I’ll take their word for it as I’m not going to count them.I put a level teaspoonful of the beads into a glass vase. Which barely made a dent in the quantity. They’re so small they looked lost in the bottom. I added around 350ml of de-ionised water and waited.4-5 hours later the beads had swollen to full size and ¾ filled the vase. I’ve included a picture of 3 beads before and after to show just how much water each bead can soak up.They look really good in the vase with some artificial flowers. The pure water gives them a glassy look.