Hello Friends,
I have missed being here. Life seems to demand that I spend my energy elsewhere most of the time. I am sure you all know what I mean. But as luck or mis-fortune (depending on how you look at it, it depends on the day for me,) would have it, I currently have a little more time for writing and spending time here. A couple of weeks ago I broke my foot and therefore am experiencing a whole new set of challenges just to do simple and ordinary things. Even the act of crafting has become more challenging. I am currenlty spending a great deal of time sitting in bed with my foot up on a stack of pillows.
Well after what at times felt like heroic effort (mostly to gather all the crafting tools and supplies) here is what I was able to create from my recovery room.
Upcycled paper bead flapper style long necklace.
Upcycled paper bead drop / dangle earrings
I won't bother to show you how to make paper beads as there are many good video tutorials already out there. What I will do is share a few photo's of my work in progress and a few tips on accomplishing a completed project with one foot iced and elevated. :-)
The first step to one footed crafting was selecting a project with only a few raw materials and some repetitive motions. Paper bead making seemed to fit that bill. So I gathered my junk mail, paper cutter, glue and a wooden skewer and commenced on a few hours of cutting, rolling and gluing.
I used a dinner plate to keep my project on as I worked. This keep the beads and paper from getting lost in the bedding.
After a few hours I had a nice assortment of beads.
I decided to paint my beads with fingernail polish for two reasons. First it dries faster then paint and second there was no need to clean up brushes.
Some ends I finished by painting with a contrasting color and others where finished by dipping the ends into the same color. Dip and allow to dry a little then dip again for the rounded darker end.
A few beads were decorated using some glue and thread.
Then they were all dipped into a coat of polycrylic and allowed to dry. Most folks recommend painting the beads with the polycrlic but I had quite a few and they were sort of small so the dipping was much faster. It is important to note that I moved into the kitchen for this part of the process as I did not want to risk polycrylicing my sheets.
This step requires some extra attention. After dipping the beads need to be rolled occasionaly so the polycrylic will dry smoothly and not form a big blob on one side of the bead. Also the beads need to be moved along the skewer a few times during the drying process so they don't adhere to the skewer.
I used 20 gauge gold jewelry wire and some needle-nose pliers to string the beans together and made myself a sort of weired colored flapper length necklace and one pair of earrings.
The steps for "stringing" are pictured below. They don't make perfect circle hoops but I am quite happy with how the projects turned out.
Happy Upcycling,
