"A blog dedicated to the art of making paper beads & paper bead jewelry...by Janice Mae"
Lokta Paper Beads by Carmen
Carmen comes to our shop to admire the different paper beads we have on display. She tried making the paper beads herself and before long was turning out beautiful paper beads. I shared with her how the women in the Philippines are able to supplement their income by making paper beads. Carmen is an active volunteer for hopepartnershipnepal.org and was very much encouraged by the Philippine women story and how it could be possible for the women in Nepal to do the same. I was admiring her latest creation, paper beads made of lokta paper or commonly known as rice paper. She incorporated some wood beads and the textured wood bead is from the Bodhi Tree – Buddha sat under this tree during his enlightenment. I love the organic look to this bracelet.
Did you know that paper made with lokta plant is non-perishable in water and that it is very soft and often use to wrap precious stones?
The bumpy looking wood bead Carmen used in this bracelet is made from Bodhi tree.
Carmen with daughter.
Beautiful Paper Beads by Elim
Elim discovered her love for jewelry making when her fiance’s mom gave her a bunch of beads. The internet and youtube became Elim’s online school for jewelry making like most of us. Isn’t it fun that you can just google anything and everything? She stumbled on how to make paper beads and according to her “I couldn’t help myself from making so many.” She couldn’t make enough for family and friends who just love her creations. To see more of Elim’s paper bead jewelry, you can see it here.
Elim favors the candy colors like this bracelet with the heart charm, perfect for Valentine’s Day, don’t you think?
With the matching earrings
She made this necklace for a 7 year old girl.
She made this blue paper beads necklace and bracelet set for her mother’s friend who is going to be a grandma. How neat is that? Blue for a baby boy and pink for a baby girl. What a neat idea!
I have never tried making them in pure black like this bracelet, I think this came out really nice paired with silver beads.
Don’t you think these rings are so fun? I think they would be perfect with paper beads jewelry.
Paper Bead Dangles
I have an ealier post using paper beads on book marks. Since then, we got requests to make some more using different charms and the smaller rounder paper beads. These paper bead dangles, as I call them, can be made to hang on a book mark finding as shown here, but could also hang as cell phone charms, purse charms and even charms for hair embellishment. I took a few photos today of the paper “beadangles” and I thought I’d share them with you.
As you can see what we’ve done is hung different charms, you could also hang crystals instead. You can customize it anyway you want to.
Candy Colored Paper Beads Bracelets
I had fun making these bracelets using the twisteezwire. This is such a great companion for paper beads. It is very forgiving and so easy and fun to work with, no experience required 🙂 I found this great product and the Craft and Hobby Trade Show and was playing with it. I used the one paper bead tubes for this project.
Ladder bracelet using two colors, since the wire was not long enough, but it gives it a funky twist don’t you think?
This is the bracelt made with the same twisteezwire but with charms dangling from it, a mixture of paper beads, plastic heart beads (Happy Valentines) and some curly beads (green color) I made with paper clay.
I just curled the excess wire and it comes out as part of the design.
Trash to Treasure
I have mentioned in passing my penchant for anything, altered, used, second hand or recycled. I don’t think I’m being taken seriously though when I say that I’d rather wear paper beads jewelry than diamonds (a girl’s best friend right?). My husband, ever since I discovered paper beads and how I can turn them into beautiful jewelry stopped getting me real jewelry for birthdays and Valentine’s Day. He knows that he doesn’t get to see me wear them. I love the attention when I am at a gathering and I will be the only one wearing paper beads jewelry. My mind whirls with ideas and imagination when I find “trash” I know can be turned into something useful. While we were setting up our booth at the CHA last Saturday, I saw string of plastic strewn all over the floor soon to be picked up by the cleaning crew. As I was picking them up from the floor I can already imagine turning it into a purse or a throw pillow. I just have the time to clean it today and rolled them up into a ball. It was so much fun for my dog Bo and the new addition to our family Julius. You can see it here yourself.
Bo did not leave me alone, he was determined to have fun just as much as i did.
Julius, does not want to be left behind with all the excitement of rolling this long piece of plastic strip into a ball.
Part of the fun is the creating part, I am thinking of making a throw pillow with paper beads embellishments or a purse, what do you think? I hope I have inspired you to turn your trash into treasure.
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