Make and Share Craft Tutorials
About
Published
over 1 year ago
Time
Difficulty
These beads can take a while to make but they are so easy you can make enough to put a bracelet together in an evening while you watch TV.
Tags
Crafts
Instructions
You Will Need
- Project Cost
- Almost Nothing
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1
This is what you'll need:
A magazine (I chose the John Lewis one pictured as the paper has a lovely feel to it)
Ruler (optional)
Pencil (optional too)
Scissors
Glue
A stick or knitting needle (I used a wooden skewer)
Spray varnish -
2
The first step is to cut some long tapered strips from the magazine. The top is about 1cm tapering on both sides to the narrowest point which is about 0.5 cm. Use the whole length of the page.
You can make it any width you want. The wider the bottom the wider the bead; the more tapered the point and longer the strip, the fatter the bead.You can also do this with a ruler and pencil or if you get fed up with that (as I did) just do it by eye. This part is fun because you can experiment with the colours. The colour at the point of the strip will be the main colour of the bead. I've tried, with this bracelet to make the beads roughly the colours of the rainbow.
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3
Next step is to wind the strip of paper around the stick or knitting needle starting with the wide end as pictured below.Try to keep the paper centred so that the narrow end ends up in the middle of the bead. Wrap the paper tightly and when you get to the point where there is just about 5cm left to roll then add a thin strip of PVA glue.
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4
Wind the last 5cm around the stick. It doesn't matter if the glue oozes out and spreads onto the bead, it will dry clear and will also keep the bead nicely together.
Gently pull the bead off the end of the stick/needle.
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5
Now make a few more.
I made about 80 for this project. It was a random number - the amount I could make while sitting in front of the television catching up on Gossip Girl and Waterloo Road!
Put all the beads into an old container and spray with varnish. -
6
Next find something suitable on which to string the beads. I used a piece of gold coloured elastic taken off a chocoloate box. It is roughly 70 cm long.
When the varnish is dry start stringing the beads.
I decided to string mine in a rainbow sequence.
Once the beads fill the string, tie the ends of the elastic. It can be worn as a bracelet or necklace.
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