Petrified Paper

Day 38: Quite honestly, people, I am so terrified of what is occurring in this country right now that I can't focus on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. I keep asking myself, "Why am I even DOING projects?" and then my thoughts wander off into dark, spider-filled corners where no one should ever feel the urge to go. Consequently, I've dragged out a lot of crafts I can visit with the attention span of a butterfly, sipping here at the sweet nectar of weaving, flitting there to gather a pollen of tiny beads, resting for a moment to spread my weary wings over paper and glue as if begging to be mounted as a specimen of a free world now on the brink of extinction. But nothing holds me to it; not crochet, not reading, not even sharing quiet time with Tip. I do not have the leisure to pursue science, not with COVID raging outside my door and Proud Boys on three sides of my refuge. I am frightened, and flight is not an option.

So how does this relate to the photo? My paper beads are also "petrified." A single application of a product new to me called "PC-Petrifier," made expressly to preserve rotten wood, has left them firm enough to withstand a substantial squeeze between my fingers without altering the colour of the origami paper I used to create them. Paper, after all, is just wood in another form. A second two-minute dip in the petrifier will give them a slightly glossy appearance and firm them up even more.

Victorian Paper Beads

Day 24: While digging around in my crafts cupboards a few days ago, search for something I seem to have irretrievably mislaid, I came across the box containing my paper bead-making kit. "Huh," I said, "now that's something I haven't done in a while." Out it came, and within a minute or two at most, I was happily making paper beads at the kitchen table.

Now while this project can be done using any type of rod around which to wind the beads, having a tool specifically designed for the purpose makes it easier. Mine cost less than $10 (admittedly, probably at least five years ago) and was made by a Hong Kong-based company called Green Creativity. Prior to purchasing it, I accomplished exactly the same end result with only a little more work using a quilling needle..."quilLing," not "quilTing"...i.e., a pointy thing in a handle. You could use a small dowel, a wooden barbecue skewer, a metal rod, anything with a uniform diameter. Regardless of what tool you use, fancy or simple, you will also need paper. The beads in the photo above were made from origami paper and coloured pages out of a magazine, in either case not a large expense. I use a Fiskars paper cutter to make my strips, but they can be cut with scissors as well. For these beads, the paper strips need to be 8 inches long, 5/8" on the wide end, tapering down to a blunt point. Start winding at the thick end and, keeping the winds centered over the previous ones, continue until you have roughly two inches of the narrow end left to wind on. Apply a light film of craft glue (I use Aleene's Tacky Glue) to the underside and continue to wind to the end. Carefully slide your bead off the rod/tool, pinch it slightly to round the center hole, insert an appropriately-sized object in the hole to smooth out any loose coils inside and then let it dry. You've made your first bead in less time than it took to read this, so make some more. When you have as many as you want, you can finish them in a variety of ways. The simplest is to apply a thin layer of glue to the exterior, but if you want to get fancy, you can varnish them, treat them with wood hardener, apply paints, etc. Sometimes I roll them in glass frit (finely ground glass) while the glue/varnish is wet. This will give them a little texture and sparkle, and closely imitates the beads my grandmother once wore, a few of which I still own, tucked safely away in a jewelry box. As crafts go, this is about the cheapest fun you can have, plus it recycles magazines in a way to make a giftable product.