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.