Paper Bead Rolling is a great hobby. Not only is it a creative outlet, but you also get beautiful custom jewelry to wear! And it’s so easy, anyone can do it, from elementary age to grandparents. This tutorial will give you a basic overview of how to roll paper beads.
The video above will walk you through the technique you’ll use to create fabulous paper beads!
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Types of Paper
You can use just about any type of paper to make paper beads. Reused materials such as magazine pages, newspapers, and food boxes allow you to make beautiful beads and help the environment at the same time. Patterned or colored papers work great too. You can even use glitter papers for a little extra sparkle. If a paper is thin enough to roll, you can make it into a paper bead.
Paper Strips
Next, you will cut the paper into strips. Have fun experimenting with how the shape of the paper impacts the shape of the finished bead. For example, a triangle-shaped strip generally makes a diamond-shaped bead, while a rectangle-shaped strip makes a cylinder bead.
Paper Bead Roller
In order to make a paper bead, you’ll need something to help you wrap the paper strip tightly. If you made paper beads as a child, you may have used a toothpick or a BBQ stick. While that does work, using a special tool like the paper bead rollers from our website will help you to make a neater, tighter, and more professional looking bead. Each bead roller has a metal winding pin with a slot that will hold the paper firmly as you roll it.
Adhesive
Next, you need something to keep the bead together. White school glue works great with most paper. For heavy or coated paper you may need a stronger adhesive like Tombow MONO Multi Liquid Glue or Tombow MONO Permanent Adhesive. Put a bit of adhesive at the end of the paper and when it dries, your paper bead is ready!
Glazing
The last step is applying glaze to the paper bead. Glaze serves two purposes: 1) It makes the bead water-resistant so that it won’t disintegrate when exposed to skin oils or moisture, 2) The glaze provides a hard coating so that the beads don’t flatten or crush. Most craft glazes don’t create a hard enough coating for the bead. We like to use Judikins Diamond Glaze for hard, shiny beads.
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