"A blog dedicated to the art of making paper beads & paper bead jewelry...by Janice Mae"
Easy Elastics-Three’s A Charm
I like the idea of the stackable rings, why not bracelets? Well, these three elastic bracelets are supposed to be worn together with three good luck charms dangling from it: beckoning cat (popular in Asian culture), feather and the clover. I made these using the diamond shaped paper beads strung on elastic.
I put red 8/0 seed beads in between, red is also a color for good luck and happiness 🙂
This would be pretty too if done in silver or copper charms and small wood beads in between.
So, what have you done with your paper beads today? We are going to have a Gallery in one of our categories soon and if you would like your work to be featured in our Gallery just drop me an email in the Contact Us link on your right hand side.
I hope that whoever will wear this will have an abundance of good luck!
Paper Bead Rosaries
Prayer beads are used by various cultures as a form of devotion and meditation. Saying the rosary to me has a special meaning because my mother taught it to me as a little child, now I use it to take my mind off from worry sometimes, I know I should be using it more as devotion. I am sharing this with you to use paper beads to make prayer beads, I would like to come up with other forms of prayer beads. In the meantime, I am sharing with you Rosaries that I made. Most of the materials and instruction are available at Our Lady Of Rosary Makers, they are a not for profit organization.
I made mine out of olive shaped paper beads because the original Rosary that our church gives away for free is made out of plastic beads that resembles the olive shaped paper beads, like this one below.
The plastic findings are very inexpensive and this would make great gifts.
I also made it in silver.
You see how some people hang it on their car, this would be great for that purpose as well. I have the Virgin Mary in my backyard, so I took a picture of it on Her.
Silk cord is used to make these rosaries, you could also make them with eye pins using the rosary loop technique.
Upcoming Posts: How to make the saucer shaped beads and more Prayer Beads ideas.
I will be introducing our new product Vibrance, a non toxic, eco-friendly glaze for paper beads!!!
Baby Sea Anemone Ring
The ring blank that I used for this ring is different than the single loop or the three loop findings I used for the Sea Anemone Ring. This ring finding has 7 loops and what I did is put two paper bead dangles on each loop. I used the small round paper beads and the result was a baby sea anemone ring.
Each of the paper bead and silver heart charm were wire wrapped to the loops of the ring finding
This is such a fun ring to make, do not limit your imagination, use different size of paper beads, dangle some charms…..
I wire wrapped a 24 gauge wire at the base to hold up the paper bead dangles or you can leave it free to move around, it depends on the kind of look you want
Experiment with the many cool things that you can do with paper beads, I think possibilities are endless
Finds At The Pasadena Bead Show
The Pasadena Bead and Design Show is held twice area in the beautiful city of Pasadena, California. I am fortunate to live just 30 minutes away, Kayla and I spent a day just looking, getting ideas and talking with talented jewelry makers and artists. One of the exhibits there is by fiber artist Barbara de Jounge, and what intrigued me the most is the recycled necklaces.
Can you believe they are made out of rubber bands?
work of Barbara de Jounge
That is a necklace made out of plastic tubes that you find in the hangers displaying clothes at department stores. I love the black and white theme! You want to get noticed? Imagine yourself at a party, a three carat diamond ring won’t get you noticed (everybody is probably wearing it), but this would 🙂
Barbara also works with wools and makes eclectic cutting edge designs. The necklace on the right is made out of felted wool, and on your left is made out of safety pins, sorry guys it is so hard to take a picture when you have no control of the lights.
work of Barabara de Jounge
The red rubber band necklace certainly looks good on Kayla 🙂
Re use, recycle, refurbish, turn something ordinary into extraordinary!
Ready For Gift Giving
Looking for inexpensive presents that are at the same time thoughtful? Why not give paper beads? They are very popular nowadays, and any of your friends or family will surely appreciate something that is all hand made by you. I am lucky to have a scrap booking store right next to me and they always have some clever ideas on how to make gift bags and little envelopes. So I am sharing this with you and what I call wordy beads.
These are hand selected magazine pages made into paper beads with the words still visible on them after they have been rolled.
Here’s step by step how-to on the envelope:
1st, you take a double sided square paper 8 x 8 or 12 x12 depending on how small or big you want your envelope to be. In this photo I am using a scrap booking paper, cut down to 8 x 8 square.
2nd step, you will take one corner of the paper and fold it in half forming a triangle.
3rd step, you will take the two sides and overlap it in the center make sure you crease them really well.
4th step, take the flap down and glue it down or apply decorative tape.
You could also use glue dots and embellish the flap if you want to.
Last Step, fill up it up with hand made paper beads or paper beads jewelry
Simple yet Beautiful!
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