Answer to quesion: What sealer do you use on the beads?

I use Min-Wax poly acrylic (water based) fast-drying glossy. I've tried lacquer and shellac and varnish and they are too hard to clean up after, too smelly to work with for very long and some go yellow after time so I stand by good old poly-acrylic. They are dry to the touch in about an hour and cure over the next few days until they are as durable and hard as the smelly, hard to clean up after alternatives! Walmart has a good supply in the paint department for about $17.00 a quart and will coat 1,000's of beads! I double dip some, if I need a particular look to the bead, but for regular purposes, one coat is plenty.
IDEA: try cutting straight strips and rolling tube shaped beads - the words or pictures on the papers show up better on tube shaped beads.

Beading Parties Available Again Summer of 2010

How about getting all your friends together to browse and/or plan your own special paper bead necklace?

Maybe you and your friends are into "recycling" and just want personal jewelry made of recycled paper or scrap cloth beaded necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

Maybe you and your friends want jewelry from paper or cloth that carries beautiful memories or just has beautiful colors to match a special outfit.

(Bible pages necklace shown in photo - click to enlarge)

Call or email: bbwright98@hotmail.com or 801-209-1382 and ask to book a party!

The hostess gets 10% of all sales in credits towards your own purchase of products!

A party is an excellent time to coordinate with me to make a very personal jewelry product.

I love special orders!

* I have made REAL Salt lake soccer bracelets from game brochures. Necklaces from notes written by children in their own handwriting: "I love you Mom, Angie age 5" is a treasure for a lifetime to wear around your neck.

* I have made beads from napkins left over from a baby shower for the Mother-to-be!

* One lady once told me, "if you would make a necklace from my favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird", I'd buy it! I found an old discarded copy and the necklace was given to her on her last day as a teacher.

* I have made necklaces from favorite cloths, to favorite colors, to favorite magazines to maps of favorite places! I think I have only begun to scratch the surface!

THINK ABOUT IT:

A hand written note to your children would be something they would cherish forever! "Mother will always with you!" and then your own hand written signature. What child wouldn't love that - a keepsake they can wear!

Paper Bead learning Events

On April 11, 2009 and June 6, 2009 the Wheeler Farm is having two family events where Bowenwright Crafts will have a booth. At this booth, both kids and parents can practice and make their own paper beads for a necklace!
Come see us at the Historic Wheeler Farm 6351 South and 900 East in Salt Lake City.

First up is the: Wheeler Farms 1st Annual Easter Carnival, with Main Sponsors, Utah Kids Club & Thin & Healthy Utah!! This event is Saturday April 11th 2009 from 10am-3pm.

Second up is the The Utah Kids Club 2nd Annual Summer Stampede!!! This event in June 6th, 2009 from 10am-3pm.

Pictures of some unique beads - all from paper

These are beads made from paper that was 25" long. I cut the triangles to only 1/2" at the base - as you roll more and more of the paper, it gives them this nearly ball shape.

The tube beads shown below are made of a topographical maps. You can carefully cut and allow words to show up on the beads!

My friend received an envelope that had the inside covered in red

U's (for University of Utah). I carefully cut the envelope to get these beads. They are small and dainty and will make great earrings!

This was a special order. The lady brought me 3 sheets of scrap booking paper in colors she loved. What a gorgeous 4th of July set! But I made each color into its own necklace so that you can wear them separately if you want to. I'm all for flexibility. That way you wear the necklace more often - better price value!

New Hints for a New Year

I found some gorgeous paper that is 25 inches long - so I cut them into triangles with the base being 1/2 inch wide - yes, very long and skinny. But when rolled that made nearly round beads (actually looked dodecahedron-ish to me) - but different than the long skinny, tube or oval beads I usually do. 25 inch long paper is harder to cut but way cool results. I'll get pictures posted soon.

My work room/office/store area at my house is coming along. Hopefully I can move in soon.

Please check my store on etsy as I plan on putting the majority of my inventory there in the next week. I love etsy! And don't forget to see my nieces etsy store for wonderfully clever "Twilight" inspired jewelry!

Let's all make Beads! A great craft for kids

(Pictures of a paper bead being rolled on a wire)

Last weekend I got to spend some precious hours with my Grandniece Karmen. She is 5 years old and wanted dearly to make some beads with me. She did great! Not exactly to the standards I hold myself to for selling but for a 5 year old - GREAT!

She loves to cut with scissors so I had her cut straight lines in colored type paper to make tube beads. She rolled the beads up on plastic coffee stir sticks that I got at Costco (5,000 for a price that was around something like $6.00 -cheap by any measure). I like to have children use plastic straws or plastic stir sticks (they are a bit thinner than straws) because they are much easier for small hands to handle, they can't hurt themselves with them like they might with a piece of wire and the beads come easily off the plastic even after the glue has dried.

(Thick glossy paper is hard even for adults to roll, let the kids use thinner, non-glossy paper like tissue paper to start out on.)

(tube beads made with straight pieces of paper. I like about 3/4" to 1" in paper width for kids.)

One trick - don't use any glue until the bead is nearly completely rolled. Just the very end piece is glued. That keeps the glue from getting out of control and makes them easier to adjust if the rolling goes crazy and to get off of the straw.

The more my grand-niece tried at rolling, the better she got. The beads got tighter and tighter. But one thing about paper beads is that the look good no matter how they are rolled!

We didn't dip any beads in poly-acrylic and I would not recommend that until kids are much older. Besides, beads made at this age are not meant to be handed down generation after generation!

Even my 2 year old niece wanted to help string on the beads. Again I was amazed at her concentration as she tried to get the Tigerwire through the holes! - and she succeeded several times. The Tigerwire is stiff so she could aim for several second without it drooping which make is a much more pleasant product to use than string or yarn for young people! Just please monitor young people with the Tigerwire so they don't accidentally poke their eyes! (Tigerwire is a brand name for wire that is actually made of several strands of wire twisted together and then coated with a plastic.)

I use Tigerwire just because it is so dang sturdy. I don't put a clasp on a necklace for young children - just make the necklace large enough to go over their head. Put a loop with a crimp bead on one end of the strand, and then loop the other end through the first loop and with a crimp bead securely hold that second loop together. Beautiful intertwined loop closure!

The Family Christmas Gift Show is now in the Rearview Mirror!

Let things settle for me for a couple of weeks and I'll start the "you can make beads too" lessons.
I will be adding a line for boys in by January, 2009 thanks to the brillant idea of my best male client, Max. Therefore the boys line of paper necklaces will be known as the "MAX" line!