Let's not discuss how long it's been since I posted here.
Let's not discuss how many inchies have not made it to this blog.
And, whatever we do, let's not discuss the weather.
The 'too-many-days-over-100-degrees' weather.
Let's talk about paper beads, instead.
Because (though I've been busy with a variety of things), last Friday when my D'Art group got together to play (it's summah!), the lovely Able Baker Dana joined us and headed up a little paper bead workshop.
I haven't been able to stop making them since then.
Perhaps it's because I can never tell just how a bead will turn out before I start making it.
Perhaps it's because they don't require any supplies that I don't already have (plenty of).
Got this stuff on hand?
- white glue
- clear nail polish (the glittery kind is nice, too)
- a 'winding wire' (this one is the kind used by utility companies to plant flags)
- decorative papers or colorful magazine pages
- a nice wet cloth
Here is one way to make paper beads.
First, cut a bunch of paper strips...
...in triangles at least 10" long...
...(you can even use the 'selvedge' from your decorative papers).
Then, start at the wide end of one strip and wind it (nice and tightly) around the rod.
When you get about 3" from the skinny end, ...
...run a little glue along the remaining paper before you finish winding it up.
Then grab your bottle of white glue,...
...glop some on the bead...
...and just smooth it all over the bead with your fingers (now you know why you need the wet cloth).
(Don't worry about getting glue on the wire; the beads will still move along the wire easily.)
Now, just move the bead down to one end of your wire to dry while you wrap the next one.
When you have your wire almost full, use your clear nail polish to give all the beads a nice protective coating.
Able Baker Dana recommends three coats of polish, but I'm here to tell ya I stopped at two and am hoping there won't be any severe repercussions.
It doesn't take long to make a nice little pile of beads.
And it really is interesting to see how the different papers look once they are rolled.
This bead was made from a leopard print paper:
And you can see that if you vary the width of your triangles, you get some nice variance in bead size.
Sometimes I worry about my obsessive/compulsive tendancies with these sorts of things.
I worry about why I am compelled to make so many of some things before I can feel settled.
But, you know what I've noticed?
There always seems to be a blessing in them for someone eventually.
In this case, it didn't take long to see who would that someone would be.
Little Man was here last night, and he sat for a long while, with real concentration...
...and made a nice long string of paper beads.
So.
I got the blessing on this one.