I love beads and I love paper. Sparkly, colourful, bright, subtle, its all yummy.

Pinterest had some interesting pics of jewellery made from paper beads, which looked very intriguing. That looks easy, I thought after looking up a couple of tutorials. Ha ha ha ha ha.

After a bit of trial and error, I thought it would be useful to share what I did as it wasn’t  quite as easy as some of the very brief tutorials made out. First thing is to find some nice colourful paper, not too thin and not too thick. I used scrapbook paper with a lovely vintage kitchen theme in pinks and blues.

Step 1 - choose some nice paper with interesting colour variations, line up one side square on the cutting mat and then cut a triangle from the other end 1.5 cm in from the top. That creates a paper with a straight edge and an angled end.
Step 1 – choose some nice paper with interesting colour variations, line up one side square on the cutting mat and then cut a triangle from the other end 1.5 cm in from the top. That creates a paper with a straight edge on the left and an angled end on the right. This first cut piece is not used.
Stage 2 preparing to cut the strip
Step 2: Using the cut end and the cutting mat as a guide, line up the ruler to form a symmetrical triangle 3cm wide at the bottom going to a central point at the top.
Just after cutting the strip
Step 3: You should end up with a long thin but symmetrical triangle, wide at the bottom and thin at the top. Mine is 3cm wide at the bottom so it produces a symmterical cone bead that is about 3cm long
Starting to roll the bead
Step 4: Using a suitable rolling tool – I used a size 11 knitting needle – wrap the fat end of the paper tightly around, pushing it as tight as possible with your thumb nail and fingers. Its tough as you need to press really hard to keep the paper under control. You must roll evenly, so that the edges form neat bands as the bead forms. It gets skewed really easily so go backwards and forwards a few times until you get it right.
Rolling the bead
Step 5: roll, roll, roll and keep everything very tight around the roller. I think you can get bead rollers with a slit in them to hold the end of the paper in place – I can see that would work well and I am trying to get one.
Putting the glue on the end of the paper bead
Step 6: When you get within about 4cm of the pointy end, put some wet glue on the tail before completing the final few rolls. I used straight PVA. Just a few strokes with a paintbrush and rolled and then held in place tightly for a few minutes. Don’t use too much or the bead goes soggy.
Finishing the bead
Step 7: The raw bead is then complete.
Bead finished but still on the needle
Step 8: Once the tail end of paper is firmly stuck in place let it dry for a bit while still on the knitting needle, or whatever you have used – I did this on a warm day and so about half an hour was plenty.
Bead hole is neat
Step 9: Take the bead off the knitting needle or support. The finished bead should have a nice shape and a good, clear hole through the middle.
two more finished beads
Step 10: Time for embellishing and finishing. The paper bead looks pretty but it needs to have some pampering before it can be used in jewellery. It needs some decoration and sealing to make it a little more resistant to water and to give it a sheen.
Beads embellished with silver embossing powder
Step 11: I used an embossing pen and dunked the beads in silver embossing powder and then applied a heat gun to make the silver powder go nice and shiny.
The last step was to put them on a brass wire and then paint them gently with three coats of decoupage glaze. Nice and silver and shiny now. Here they are made up as a pair of earrings with sterling silver handmade earwires.
Step 12: The last step was to put them on a brass wire and then paint them gently with three coats of decoupage glaze. Nice and silver and shiny now. Here they are made up as a pair of earrings with sterling silver handmade earwires.