Two New Necklaces - One for sale, one for me.

Season's Way - This one is for sale for $25

This one is slightly smaller and it's mine to keep. :)  Just felt like sharing. 

More Beads! You know you're excited about those

I long for the days when I can make dolls again.

The necklace is one I made for work. I'm wearing it on my other blog, A Day in the Life of She Who Is...

Two Bracelets and a Dragon

Working on some gifts and I'm really not sure what I think of these. Thoughts? Paper beads as the central focus. 

This one is a dragon I'm working on. It's slow. I can't do this too much right now. It's acrylic too, which I've not really used since school. (Jr. High) 

Tiiiiired. Last update for today. Done for now

Two more bracelets

Paper beads and glass on cotton thread

She really likes these! She approves. 

Working on Swaps!

It's been a little while since I was able to do much arting stuff. I didn't take photos of the envelopes I'm making also. I've been slowly working on some jewelry for swappies. Swappies are basically other people who are sick with chronic illnesses. We just try to cheer each other up. :) I'm very slow on mine because my left hand is still extremely numb/hurty. I have no idea what it'll take to get that to work again. I've been checked for carpal tunnel and don't have that, last we knew, but I'm fairly sure there is a nerve pinched somewhere around my elbow.

Welcome to my messy craft area! This is our art desk. Justin asks me what I'll do whenever he's ready to actually create art. Um...guess I'll be packing my stuff up then. :)  I want this to be usable by both of us. I'd love to see him create art. 

Here is just one bracelet set for swapping. I'm working on a lot more. I can't wear metal, but I might do some with metal closures too. These are loop and bead ones, 7 inchers with a little give.

Addendum:

A few hours later, this necklace is done as well. It's a 16 inch choker. I hope I find the right swap partner to receive these bits of jewelry. I worry I'll send to someone who will hate it :( 

Paper beads, black cotton cord, peridot-colored glass chips and hemalike beads. 

Taking Time, Blues and Candy Sweet

I'm slow even on working on beads right now. Here are my current pieces. They're watercolor painted on paper then cut and rolled. Unique and all one of a kind.

This set is a random cut set, an experiment. I didn't measure any of the pieces and am using 2 types of scrapbook paper. 

Another New Creation....and a Cat.

New Bracelet

I'm glad I can finish a few things off and on. I've made many bead sets, but finished few.  Definitely haven't made much into actual jewelry. This one is fairly simple, but comfortable. I set it back to sell though. Wish me luck!  In the meantime, I'm still working on that same picture from last week. I hope to feel better later to do something else on a theme. There's a  masquerade and fairy theme in a group I'm part of. Or the tail end (I think) of sketchfest? Cleaning house has to come first today, however. It'll be slow. Apartment inspections for appliances this week.

I worked on this one with a heat pad on my right knee. Zoey zonked out and just let me bead away.

New Bracelet Set

Pink Simplistic.

Took awhile tonight and I had some assistance.

I listed to bracelet set on Etsy. It's affordable. $.9.50 + basic shipping.

Pink and Aqua Paper Bead and Glass Bracelet Set - 3 Bracelets - $9.50

Finished Necklace

Necklace Available on Etsy - $25.00

The beads are paper, of course. They have a daisy floral pattern with shades of green, gold, black and white. I made the necklace with black, teal, green and gold beads.

Had fun setting up a way to make this. It fits about the same as the one I made for myself, so slightly longer than a choker.

Too tired to have words

Still in progress.

Finally finished!

I finished the medallion necklace. It's a head with a dragon buddy, wings and all. This is made with cotton crochet thread woven together with glass beads and handmade paper beads. The beads are water resistant (not waterproof, they're paper, after all) and varnished to protect them. The only metal is the wire through the medallion itself.

I really need better photos. This is choker length, however. Great conversation piece, doncha think?  Now I need sleep. Badly. My schedule is a wreck and we have a birthday party to go to. Do believe I'll make this one around $20-25.00 with shipping about $3-5 depending on area. Hmmmm.

Little more work and fun

I find that the main task I can perform right now with my hands like they are is still making of beads. Here's my little area right now. I did locate some incredible magazine pages and scrapbook paper to get to work. I want to make the jewelry pieces soon as I can.

Here, I went all out and made a lot more of the little pegs to work on. The clay has now been baked to suit as holders for the pegs. It's a whole bead factory.

I'm in love with these beads. The scrapbook paper I used has an ombre effect. 

This is an experiment. I want to make pendants to go on necklaces. This is an attempt at a pendant. 

More Beads!

I really do a lot more than just beads. I paint watercolors, make dolls, sculpt dragons and various other things. I'm just limited right now due to my shaky hands. These bring me peace.

I got Triple Thick and I have to say, it wins. It really does have great strength and coverage. I let the beads hang overnight to fully dry out. They were dry, but I like to make sure they cure entirely so they don't get tacky and stick together. Triple Thick has minimal odor. It's also cheap, which fits my nonexistent budget. I love this orange and green set. They were made from two magazine pages from a cooking magazine. I need to get more magazines. I need to also varnish all the beads I've completed until now.

Hobby Lobby also had a sale on scrapbook paper so that it was around a quarter a sheet (25 cents.)

Remainder of the Goth Princess set and tonight's endeavors

Once awake, this is all I've been able to work on. I finished the necklace and earrings yesterday or the day before. The new bead sets are in the works in shades of green and red/orange.

Goth Princess - First Paper Bead Bracelet

It's random and chaotic;  the bracelet is a free-spirited creation with no intended plan. I haven't decided if I should sell it or keep it. It's my first, so I think I might just keep it.

It's a rainy day and though I love the sound of the water hitting the sidewalk outside and the smell of the pavement mixed with the sky's tears, the rainy days are often the hardest.  I'm home due to this. I cannot handle any sound at all today other than the lightest whisper or any full body movement. Though squinted eyes I made this bracelet. I can't do "nothing" unless I'm asleep. :P

I'm proud of this. I haven't decided what I think of how it lays, yet I think it'll work well with some black jelly bracelets.

Back to Paper Beads...Varnishes and Links

Some of us started this as children, so keep in mind this is a great craft to do with kids. You can also take some scribbled art that little kids make and turn those into memento beads for mommy.

I wanted to post some of the links I'm finding useful. It's a lot of trial and error with paper beads. I find I love white glue (Elmer's) first, then the clear blue gel type elmer's after. The final varnish is where I'm still fighting for a solution. I like acrylic nail polish, but it becomes goopy fast so isn't an ideal solution. That's my main search topic tonight. This is some of what I've found:

Paper Bead Making 101
What do you use to vanish your beads? Paper Beads What do you use to vanish your beads?
How to Protect Your Paper Beads
Paper Beads - Beading Daily

Why link to other sites rather than making my own experiment? Why reinvent the wheel?  I'm still experimenting for what I prefer. I plan to locate the Triple Thick or the Minwax stuff. The last link has a gorgeous photo of very glossy beads with Triple Thick.

For papers:

I already have a book I plan to use to make a certain type of cylinder bead. I love scrapbooking paper and magazine pages the most, however. These provide some of the prettiest colors. The tougher feel of the scrapbook paper creates a sturdier bead, though. The color play of the magazines, though....I LOVE that. I'm sculpting the pendants in polymer clay. I have three dragons from years ago that I might use. They haven't sold on Etsy yet, so might as well. I made a weird little face pendant the other night to use with some black and pink beads.

On that note, it's beyond sleepy time.

It's time for a break...and it's crazy when you...

cannot decide which craft you want to do in the meantime. I spent what time I was awake last night working on more paper beads. First I worked on painting some scrapbook paper with gold acrylic paint, then cut the strips. The beads will be lovely. The second set of beads presented challenges. They were from a magazine page so that I could get some smaller beads with a variety of color. However, I had to lengthen the strips by gluing on some extra paper to create the fuller bead.

This is the page I used for this set of beads. I thought it had some great colors to work with. The strips are narrow and lengthwise. I'll post some tutorials tomorrow. 

I love the colors that these presented, until I reached all the black. Below you'll see I had some help. This is Zoey, my fuzzy assistant. These strips are the blue ones I started with. 

Can we say....Obsession?? My fingers hurt! That's why I'm taking a break from beads today. I cannot decide which craft I want to work on however. I might just take in my dragon. Photos tomorrow perhaps?  We shall see! That one requires sewing and beading. Wish me luck. Oh and glue. Calls on Thursdays are often more intense, however, so I might not get very far on the work. Fairly fatigued today, so wish me luck on that too! :) 

The Paper Bead Journey

It all began with a simple post from my friend, Nicole. Once she posted about paper beads, I had to google them. I saw a facebook page link she put up to Paper Beads.  One of the first tutorials I found described using old newspapers and magazines to create paper beads.  This is my journey so far:

These ^ are my first paper beads. They are a bit too long, too narrow, and even though they have uber cool colors, I really won't use them for anything. I actually threw them away. The original plan was to make a bracelet out of them. I scrapped that fairly quickly and tried to find tutorials for usable beads that were pretty as well.

Thus, these ^ were born.  This became an addiction. These are made of scrapbook paper and are measured neatly with a ruler.  I plan to use them along with some similar colors for a multi-strand necklace. I want to make a dragon pendant to go on the necklaces I make with these beads.

So Addicted!!! 

Between calls at work, this is what I spent my time doing. I perfected a good drying "rack" out of a simple piece of unbaked scrap polymer clay. I use cotton swab plastic sticks with slits cut in them to roll the beads and to dry them. Multiple layers of glue are used, then on the blue ones I tossed on some sparkle acrylic paint. A layer of acrylic topcoat has been used for the glossy sealant. Unfortunately, it also smells bad when you first use it. It dries fine, however. I did get permission from most of my coworkers in the immediate vicinity first, though. This did result in an amusing facebook post. Thanks, Chris.  You're great!  :)

In the end...(Linkin Park, wonderful song) I've finished with some beads that I kind of like. I'm sort of iffy on how I created some of them. However, the blue ones are mostly complete. I have a few more to roll and gloss. I might save all of the glossing for when I'm at home, though.

The End of this post, but not of this journey. I did mention addiction, right?