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Paper Bead FAQQ. Why do you make jewellery out of paper?
A. Paper is my precious, and we wants it, precious, we wants it. My sister showed me how to make paper beads when I was a child, and a couple of years ago, I remembered and felt like trying it again. And now I'm an addict, YAY! I love jewellery making using any and all materials, but I like the challenge of making a material as basic as paper look elegant.

Q. How strong are paper beads? Don't they fall apart?
A. This depends on if and how you seal them. I varnish all my paper beads to make them hard, glossy, and long-lasting. The Japanese are famous for making furniture out of paper. It ca

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Submitted: February 29, 2012
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Paper Picture Bead Tutorialby ~Crimefish

Resources & Stock Images / Tutorials / Artisan Crafts

_{Some beads I made using this method:

You can use:
tiny pictures of your fandom, friends or family
tiny printed poems, or song lyrics
your own artwork, or your favourite artworks
washi paper, scrapbook paper, dollhouse wallpaper
the paper strips you can buy for making origami stars
whatever else your beautiful squishy brain can think up.

I used this exact size because I needed them to fit on a
bracelet, but a bigger one makes a good charm or pendant.
Play with the dimensions however you like, and just
remember how wide you cut the outside end of the paper,
so that you know how wide to cut the picture strip.
(Also the thicker the bead, the longer the picture strip.)

Your results will vary depending on the materials you use.
My clear nail polish was old and congealed, and worked
GREAT; then I started using a new one, and it was so thin,
it soaked into the paper and darkened the image.

If photos or plain paper get darkened in patches by the
varnish, that may look horrible; but other stuff will just look
like you put a photoshop grunge texture over it. It'll add to
the pattern, instead of ruining it.

So... yeah. Experiment!

If you can find a varnish that doesn't make the ink on
printouts bleed, the possibilities are pretty much endless,
e.g. a charm bracelet that's also a family photo album.

My other paper bead tutorials:

And FAQ:

Paper Bead FAQQ. Why do you make jewellery out of paper?
A. Paper is my precious, and we wants it, precious, we wants it. My sister showed me how to make paper beads when I was a child, and a couple of years ago, I remembered and felt like trying it again. And now I'm an addict, YAY! I love jewellery making using any and all materials, but I like the challenge of making a material as basic as paper look elegant.

Q. How strong are paper beads? Don't they fall apart?
A. This depends on if and how you seal them. I varnish all my paper beads to make them hard, glossy, and long-lasting. The Japanese are famous for making furniture out of paper. It}

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~PetiteBubu Jan 9, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

I've just discovered your tutorials: they're very useful and brilliant in their main concept (jewellery from paper and nail polish). Thank you very much for sharing them!

~IbiteU Jan 9, 2013 Hobbyist Writer

Adorable. This is something I'm going tohave to try. Oh and sorry for the attack of comments/faves.

~EikippieJ Dec 13, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

What kind of paper do you use for the overlapping images? Cause when I use thick paper it won't stick, but when my paper is normal or thin it'll bleed very very much..

~Crimefish Dec 13, 2012

.___. Mostly I use thin glossy magazine paper, which doesn't bleed; but when I use colour printer paper (without anything printed on it), that sometimes does. It seems to depend on the varnish I use, but I haven't noticed a difference between varnishes that cause bleeding, and ones that don't. It could easily be different brands, or just that the bottle has been open longer, and too congealed to make ink bleed.

~EikippieJ Dec 13, 2012 Hobbyist General Artist

Okay, thank you : ) I'll just keep trying and once I get the hang of it, I'll probably have two arms full of bracelets and an extreme lag in homework, but who cares ; ) Worth it.

~Crimefish Dec 13, 2012

Hahahaha! That sounds good to me, I'm completely addicted to making these. I'm really sorry you're having trouble with your materials. :/ It's irritating having to figure it out by trial and error. Even the best varnishes I've used for this purpose darken the paper a little. But the darkening should be uniform, it shouldn't be blotchy, or blur the image.

I think I'll try out my varnishes with printouts, and see how they cope.

I've also tried acrylic gloss varnish, which I suppose is meant to be used to finalise paintings. It's much thinner than nail polish, so I need about 5 coats in order to get a real gloss finish. SIGH. It occurs to me maybe I could try to coat the beads in resin or lacquer or liquid acrylic or something, LOL. I fully intend to experiment with these things eventually.