Handmade Art Paper Beads:

Flat, Flag, Scroll Beads

The flag bead begins with a rectangle rolled around a mandrel/form (skewer/toothpick/straw) a couple of times and glued, leaving a flat area to decorate or add a miniature image.

I'm calling this an "art paper bead" because the flat space provides a miniature canvas.

You can put two flags together to get a scroll; or you may roll both ends to also get the "scroll" or double-channeled bead.



The beige bead of HMP, decorated with marker and sealed with nail polish is about 1.25 inches long.

The purple bead of commercial card stock, decorated with a cancelled stamp, iridescent nail polish and sealed with clear nail polish, is 2 inches long.

As a dry, sheet-formed structure, you may explore the possibilities by trying other sheet materials: wrapping papers, decorative papers, tyvek, paper bags, tape, metal and then the zillion ways of decorating any of these sheets: ink, collage, paint: acrylic, oil, watercolor, gouache, crayon (more about crayon in a sec), pastels, pen, pencil, marker (permanent, waterbased).

New to me is using crayons and then heat setting/melting them into paper. I love that look and the texture. I also keep looking for opportunities to use crayons as a resist with acrylics.

As a papermaker, there are texture, inclusion,layering and wet surface design possibilities.



The base scrolls are HMP of bee balm and matboard. The purple is recycled purple tissue paper, sunflower pulp, and other recycled paper. PVA was applied to the scroll, the butterfly-punched purple paper was laid on the glue and then gold micro beads were poured on.

Hope to see and read about your experiments!






Hand Papermaking WebRing| Sources on the Net|Creators on the Net|
Suppliers|Reading|Akua's Workshops 2003|Making Paper Bowls|
PaperWorks Debut| On Armature for Pulp and Papier Maché|Making Paper Overview|
Casting Notes| Making Big Paper|On the Critter | Sally Fox, inventor |Woven Heart|The Cherub, another Revolution in Studio Papermaking!| Making Paper From Arugula| Burdock Paper| Catalpa Bean Paper| Cattail Paper| Cattail Head Paper | Carrot Paper| Chicory Paper| Dandelions and Green PaperMaking| Dracaena Paper| My First Gampi| Grass Paper| Ground IvyPaper | Hemp Paper| Hydrangea Paper | Making Paper From Hostas and Teasels| Jerusalem Artichoke Leaf Paper| My First Kozo| Kudzu Paper | Milkweed Paper Milkweed Fluff Paper| Paper Mulberry Paper| Queen Anne's Lace Paper| Smartweed Paper | Early Spiderwort Paper| Spurge Paper | Teasel Top Paper Yucca Paper | Wheat StrawPaper |

'Zines!!
I've created my first and second 'zines on hand papermaking: Introduction to Hand Papermaking (May 2003) and Handmade Beads of Handmade Paper (July 2003). Info here.