Paper Beads

During the 1990's, I taught myself how to make quilts. Also during the 1990's, I subscribed to a lot of quilting magazines. I discovered that the problem with having a lot of quilting magazines around the house was that I was spending too much time looking at pictures of other people's quilts and not spending enough time making my own quilts! I decided to sell the magazines at the neighborhood yard sale. I sold exactly one of them!

Not wanting to send the magazines to the landfill, I decided to cut the pictures of quilts out of the magazines and recycle the rest of the magazines at the neighborhood branch of the public library. While at the library, I checked out a book on paper jewelry making.

Making paper beads was a popular craft during the Great Depression and I thought a paper bead curtain between my bedroom and bathroom would be just fun to make.

So, I starting cutting the pictures of quilts into triangular and rectangular shapes. When rolled up, triangles make barrel shaped beads. If the ratio of the width of the base of the triangle to the height of the triangle is very small, the bead will be round. I also cut rectangular shapes

which make a cylindrical bead.

I inserted the cut shapes between the legs of a cotter pin and rolled the paper around the pin. It is wise to not roll the paper too tightly because that makes the bead difficult to remove from the pin. A spot of craft glue held it together. Then I painted a paper coating product over the surface of the bead to protect it.

I suspended the cotter pins on a vertical surface to let them dry. I used a cookie pillow for lace making held upright in a plate stand. I protected the surface with wax paper before inserting long pins each one holding a cotter pin with bead still attached. When they were dry, I slid the beads off of the pins. And repeated the process over and over, ad infinitum until I had thousands of beads.

I love the look of the beads made from pictures of quilts! The designs abstracted by rolling are interesting. You can see the pieces of the quilts and the patterns of the fabrics. You can even see some of the quilting lines! Although I am pleased with the beads, I decided not to make the beaded curtain.

So...I have thousands of beads and a lot of pictures of quilts. I may be making paper beads for awhile! Over and over ad infinitum!