Green Beads Come in Many Colors

Around 50 years ago when I learned how to make handmade beads, green wasn’t a buzzword—it was just the way things were done. It was not a throw-away society. The Great Depression was still fresh in our parents’ minds. These beads, though made from common materials, are uncommonly beautiful, and very easy to make.

Handmade Paper Beads

Paper is the main ingredient. Cutting up National Geographic magazines was (and still is) considered sacrilege by some, but back then, they produced the most colorful and glossy beads. Today, many magazines have colorful pages, so those collections of National Geographics are safe from the scissors. Fashion magazines provide a great source, and no one will mourn their loss. Here’s what you’ll need to begin:

Old magazines
Scissors
Glue stick, or clear-drying glue
Toothpicks, or plastic coffee stirrers
Piece of foam to use as a drying rack

• Cut magazine pages into elongated triangles. The base of the triangle can be from ½ to 1½ inches wide. Length can vary too. The longer the paper wedge, the thicker the resulting bead. Try eight to twelve inches for a start, then experiment. To get the most efficient use from the paper, alternate the pointed ends with the wide ends when cutting out the triangles.
• Starting at the bottom of the wedge, lightly coat the back side of the paper with glue stick or craft glue. Glue stick won’t be as messy. My sisters and I made beads in the days before glue sticks. We used mucilage (remember that?) or rubber cement.
• Beginning at the wide end, carefully wrap the paper around a toothpick or coffee stirrer. When using toothpicks, don’t make the first wrap too tight, or it will be difficult to remove from the beads.
• Coffee stirrers are great because you can wrap several beads around one stirrer and the beads won’t stick. You can even leave the stirrer in place and cut it at each end of the bead with an x-acto knife. This way you can add a sealer to a series of beads at once.
• Continue wrapping until the bead is complete. You may need a little extra glue on the tip to secure. The appearance of each  bead will be a surprise. It’s fun to see them take shape and reveal their true colors. (Black and white paper is OK too.)
• After you have several assembled, stick the toothpicks or coffee stirrers into the foam. Paint with water-based polyurethane, clear nail polish, or white glue. Again, keep the finish coat away from the toothpick. These make pretty durable beads, especially if clear-drying glue is used as a topcoat.
• When dry, remove beads from the sticks and create multicolored ‘green’ jewelry by stringing them on beading wire, nylon line, or elastic cord. These materials weren’t commonly available when I made my first necklace—we probably just used heavy thread or fine yarn.
• Scrapbooking or origami paper also makes nice beads. They’ll be colorful—but not green—unless you use scrapbooking scraps. Wallpaper samples or remnants work well too.
• Don’t forget fabric. I’ve seen lovely fabric beads trimmed with novelty yarns. These beads were wrapped around narrow plastic drinking straws. After they dried, the straw was cut close to the bead ends and left inside. These can be strung on heavier cord. If you sew your own clothes, you can make a matching necklace this way!

Times change. When I learned to make these beads, coffee stirrers didn’t exist since ‘coffee to go’ was unheard of. So was the abundance of jewelry making supplies.
I need to ask my mother where she learned to make the beads, and thank her for teaching me how. I enjoyed passing on the craft to my children. Now my daughters are grown, and I’ve discovered a new use for the beads. It’s often hard to find beads with holes large enough to use in needleweaving. These paper beads are perfect! Give it a try. Create elegant jewelry and precious memories, without precious gems.