"A blog dedicated to the art of making paper beads & paper bead jewelry...by Janice Mae"
A Ball of Paper Strings
The women from the Philippines is known for making fine handicrafts from coiled magazines. An organization Ten Thousand Villages help artisans from all over the world market their products. These are some of the handicrafts done by the Philippines Women Cooperative.
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I have received two balls of magazine paper strings to try from my sister. I promised her that I will do something with it, and these are what I have come up with, besides providing hours of playtime with my cats; Julius and Midas:)
Strings of cut magazine pages are woven by hand and rolled into balls of strings, how neat is that? This could be decorative as well, fill a vase with paper balls as a center piece, what do you think?
We are always in need of coasters, you must have them too all over your house, so I made one by just coiling it and I lacquered it after so it is water resistant (more or less).
I also wrapped a wooden bangle with it, glued it at the underside and wrapped red silk strings around it. I really like this one, it is so festive and Asian looking too.
I have received Aileen’s paper beads yesterday for the Paper Bead Trade, and they are so pretty and the pattern of the paper she used came out really nice. The nice thing about this trade is you get paper beads from everybody, and I will label each one of them who is it from.
I was scheduled to post the tutorial on the button ring, somehow encountered a glitch on youtube, so it will have to wait, maybe tomorrow when I fixed it.
Read MoreSchool Supplies for Kids
Every year in the month of June, I have pledged to donate school supplies for underprivileged Filipino kids. Did you know that there are kids in the small provinces that go to school without the necessary school supplies? Do you remember the feeling of opening a box of crayons that promises hours of fun and possibilities? This would be another project for Christmas, coloring books and crayons. With the help of my sister Joann and her husband Jun we distributed notebooks, pencils, paper and crayons to Filipino kids.
Paper Beads and Paper bead making has become a symbol for mostly women in Third World Countries to make a difference in their lives.
I grew up in a small coastal town where my father served as a judge and remember going to school with children who are even sometimes bare foot. I felt so guilty wearing my blue rubber boots with matching umbrella. June is when the classes open and also a very rainy month. So maybe, rain coats and umbrellas next year 🙂
Reminder: Today is the last day to join the Paper Bead Trade, there are 23 participants! Yay!. It will official close at twelve midnight 12 midnight Pacific Standard Time 🙂
To celebrate July 4th, I was planning on making something of red, white and blue (if there were more than 24 hours in a day), instead, here’s the Patriotic Ladder Bracelet I made last year and sold on etsy.
Upcoming Posts: How to Do Kumihimo Braid, Paper Strings, Tutorial on Button Rings.
Happy 4th of July!
My Paper Beads – Sanja Blagus
Sanja is one of our readers who like me, takes pleasure in taking pictures of her finished paper beads outside, in her garden. As you know, outside in natural day light is the best way to take photos of your jewelry. Sanja made these paper beads out of garden magazines and they came out really pretty, hell000 summer!
Sanja’s other hobby is photography, you can tell she’s having fun with these 🙂 Daisies are such happy flowers, don’t you think?
This bracelet was inspired by one of our tutorials. I wish I have her hands 🙂
I remember Kayla cut out flowers from one of her mother’s garden magazines and made it into earrings.
She also love incorporating shells into her jewelry making, you can read more about it here. The long three strand necklace held by shells is a nice way to use the long paper bead tubes.
I can almost smell the ocean with these colors
I consider this Design Idea # 4 🙂 You can substitute the shells with a 3 strand finding and you don’t even need a clasp, this will just go over your head. She certainly looks fetching don’t you think? Do you have a beach wedding to go to? This would just be perfect!
Any suggestions for Design Idea # 5? It would be greatly appreciated. If you do, just hit the Contact Me link on your right hand side.
Or, if you have a blog or website, leave us a comment with your link.
Tomorrow, is our last day for the Paper Bead Trade, we have about 20 participants right now that includes me (just providing the filler beads and findings), Kayla and my sister Joann.
Read MoreBlack and White Set – Paper Bead Idea # 3
This black and white earrings and ring set is made of the zentangle paper beads from this post. It is sometimes hard to find black and white jewelry to go with your black and white outfit. I have solved that problem and actually wore this set to a an afternoon gathering with family and friends. Paper beads jewelry can certainly be dressy if you want it to be, and can hold up to real jewelry…
So here I am wearing it 🙂
It was beautiful outside yesterday
The chandelier earrings can be worn casual since they’re paper beads and I used earring findings by black lace in one of my trips to Michaels, you can see more here.
With my brother-in-law George
Are you proud enough to wear your paper beads jewelry? Do you want to share it here?
This black and white version of the sea anemone ring was wire wrapped to this two loop finding. I will be putting ring findings to the kits I am sending out to the Paper Bead Trade participants 🙂
We have about 15 people signed up for the Paper Bead Trade, is OPEN until June 30th. For those of you who wants to sign up just email me (button is on the right hand side).
Upcoming posts: Magazine Paper Strings, More Paper Bead Creations by Sanja and Idea # 4
Paper Bead Trade Idea #2
In case you’re wondering, Idea # 1 was yesterday’s post, Come Into My Garden Bracelet where we used buttons to add to our paper beads. The paper bead tube is the most common paper bead shape and versatile in the sense that it can be used for home decorating; curtains, vases, purses, etc., but can also be easily transformed into pretty jewelry. I love mixing paper beads with crystals and even gem stones and why not? Here’s our Idea #2 using 3/4 inch tube paper beads and cloisonne beads.
What you need for this project is: .8mm elastic, 3/4 inch paper bead tubes, 6/0 seed beads and cloisonne bead or any type of focal bead.
I cut about 10 inches of elastic and make sure to put a bead stopper at the end or string from a spool and make sure that the paper bead with the largest hole will be closest to the knot you will tie at the end, so that it’s easy for that bead to accommodate the knot.
You will then tie a square knot, right over left and left over right.
It looks beautiful even among real jewelry……It kind of remind me of Victorian ladies rolling paper beads.
Paper Bead Trade Idea # 3 will be the ring and earring set made out from zentangle paper beads.
Upcoming posts: Paper Strings and Philippine Outreach Program for Kids
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