Playing Paper Bead Dress-Up
We had fun today, taking photos of our paper beads for our upcoming catalog and I would like to share this with you. We have been wanting to come up with paper bead dress and Kayla came up with the idea, it will look like this.
You would need lots of paper beads
With a necklace
It will not be complete without a paper bead purse
Paper Bead Tubes Hemp Choker
I got hooked on making hemp jewelry with paper beads. I love how the look of it makes you think of nature and it is such an effortless way of looking “cool”, something that is unique to you. Hemp is such an inexpensive material and can be bought in spools in an array of different colors. So here is another version of the square knot, with 3/4 inch tube paper beads.
This is my “paper bead soup”
I picked out from the pile the medium sized paper bead tubes for my necklace.
I did not want to add anything for the clasp so I just made a loop and the remaining hemp I divided it into two just to tie around the loop.
I guess you can wear it as a bracelet too.
The Square Knot With Hemp and Paper Beads
There is a renewed interest in hemp, and I had to dig up my book on hemp and bead jewelry. The square knot is the most basic macrame knots. The hemp necklace with paper beads is meant to be worn high up on the neck as a choker. I made this necklace with small round beads and a bigger round bead in the center of the flower.
I have found a site that has good visuals on the basic square knots, you can find it here.
For this project, you need one 2 1/2 yards of hemp (your knotting cords) the size that would fit the hole of your bead, and a shorter one about 24 inches (your filler cord or your middle cord).
With the working cord tie and overhand knot and form a loop that is big enough for your closure knot.
With the filler cord take about 5 inches and fold it forming a loop and hold it against the working cords with the loop.
You take the short end of the filler cord and start wrapping it around all the cords.
You will pull the cords to close the loop on the filler cords until you have one that looks like this.
You will then tape it down to a table so you can start braiding (just like braiding hair) the first 3 inches of the necklace.
You start your square knot ending with the filler cord (shorter cord) in the middle, so that you have two long cords on your left and on your right. You would alternate between the left and the right cords with this pattern: L cord over filler cord and under R cord, take R cord over L cord and under filler cord, then pull tight.
And then, you do the same thing, with the R cord over the filler cord, then take the L cord over the R cord and under the filler cord then pull tight. You will alternate doing this with the left and right cords and you will end up with the square knots.
I added a paper bead every 5 or 6 square knots.
After three paper beads and when you are at the center of your necklace, I added three paper beads on both the right and left strings and in the center I added a tiny paper bead, a large round bead and a tiny paper bead.
And then, you continue and finish the other side, ending with two knots (one knot over the other) as your button closure.
Here’s your finished paper bead necklace!
Glass Heart Paper Bead Necklace
I’m very pleased with the outcome of this Valentine’s Day worthy paper bead necklace. I used the same rosary loop technique in connecting the beads together. I think it look very much like vintage. I used the larger round paper beads and matched it with with copper eye pins.
For a how to video on rosary loops please look it up from our earlier post.
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