Making Recycled Beads

May 6, 2010 7:10 am Gillian Crafts, Jewelry Making, Kid's Crafts, Projects

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

It amazes me when, despite the fact that I’ve stopped subscribing to print papers (I read them online) and have signed up for as many e-bills as I possibly can, out house still amasses a shocking amount of paper each week in the recycling bin. Flyers, junk mail, school announcements, all end up as fire starters in the winter and as plain old recycling the rest of the year. This week as I pulled yet another glossy sale flyer out of my mailbox I remembered an old project my mom and I did when I was a little girl.

Back then our house was always, literally, full of newspapers. My dad, after all was first a reporter, then an editor, and finally a publisher, of both daily and weekly newspapers. I once won a newspaper drive when my dad and I carted in a years worth of overprints and back issues to the school, three pickup truck loads. Cheating? Maybe, but at least they got recycled instead of rotting away in the backroom of the paper, threatening to catch the place on fire.

I remember this as being one of those go-to rainy day crafts and, although I hadn’t done it for years, all it took was one bead to get back in the swing. It’s a little bit addicting and the possibilities for colors and sized are pretty much endless. And, if you have a girly girl like mine, well, you can make (free!) jewelry to her heats content anytime you have some extra paper lying around. Which, let’s face it, it probably all the time.

You’ll need:

Paper – any thing works but colorful ads make some of the best beads
Tacky Glue
Metal or bamboo skewer
Scissors or paper cutter

Start by cutting a few trial strips to determine the size of your beads. They will be as long as the widest part of your strip and the thickness will be determined by how long the original strip is. My favorite size is about a 10 inch long stip, 1 inch at the top and 1/4 inch at the bottom. Once you have the size you like, cut as many strips as you need beads.

With the widest end of the strip pressed against your skewer, tightly roll the paper around until you are 1/2 inch from the bottom.

Dab the very end in glue and continue rolling, using your thumb to press down the end for a moment before spreading any remaining glue around the outside. Give the glue a few seconds to set up and then carefully slide the bead off the skewer.

This craft can also be done with younger children using strips of newsprint for the paper and something wider, like a dowel, to wind the beads on. The finished beads can be used as is, painted, or even clear coated. Mine ended up on a ribbon as a bracelet which I wore for maybe 30 seconds before it was claimed by the fashionista of the house, who wore it day and night until the dog “borrowed” it. *Hint*, these are not dog proof. But luckily they are free, so a replacement was just a few rolls away.