Why paper bead tools?

Let me explain why I considered the paper bead tools I made to be the best thing ever for crafting.

Making Paper beads from junk  is one of my favourite crafts. I have always loved transforming mundane pieces of paper into beautiful jewellery.

Not being able to roll the paper bead strips very easily spoilt my my enjoyment.

Getting the bead started easily needed something to grip the end of the bead strip.

I also wanted something that would allow me to slide the finished bead off quickly and smoothly.

It needed to be a tool that wouldn’t pull the middle out of of the bead.

There have been many paper bead tools for sale for years but, they were made from split bamboo.

They were ok and I made quite a few of my own over the years. The problem that I found was the bamboo could sometimes snag the paper making beads hard to slide off.

So many years ago, I created my own tools.

Learn to Make Gorgeous Paper Beads In Minutes!

Once you have the tool and have practiced on a few strips of paper, making beautiful beads is really easy.

Watch my easy to follow tutorial over on YouTube by clicking the link below.

https://youtu.be/J2kiP1pbk9A

With this tool, you will never get mad at junk mail again!

Instead, you will be saying thank you for all the wonderful free paper you are getting.

And think of the thrill when you make a really beautiful bracelet out of something that used to annoy you! Make unique presents that have cost you next to nothing.

Or make some really colourful beads that are truly unique and cannot be copied by using your own artwork.

The possibilities for creating paper beads of all different shapes and sizes is endless with the paper bead tool.

I really enjoy colouring designs on plain paper and then making beads from it.

Add several coats of glaze and no one will ever guess they are made from paper!

After experimenting with different materials for many years, I came up with a paper bead tool that I loved.

The design was nice and simple and very easy to use. It rolled nice tight beads that were easy to slide off and I was happy with that.

I eventually made the tools in two sizes, 3mm and 5mm.

The 3mm size allows you to make beads with a smaller core.

You can thread these on finer stringing material up to almost 3mm thick.

The 5mm size allows you to make beads with a larger core.

You can thread these on thicker stringing materials such as leather or Pandora style bracelets.

Next, I created templates for to use repeatedly, avoiding the need to measure every time.

For many years I used my drawn out templates with carbon paper.

This was because I had no printer or computer in those days.

Eventually, I refined my templates to sell to other people that I was teaching in craft groups.

So along with my paper bead tools, they were able to use my new templates as well.

My students loved using them because it my the process easier.

So I extended that further to create downloadable templates for sale online.

People could print them, stick them onto paper with removable glue tape and then cut with a craft knife.

And then I designed a set that can be used with electronic cutters such as Silhouette Cameo.

For easy cutting of bead strips without the hassle of measuring and drawing lines, you can download them from etsy. 

They are easy to use – Click here to find out how to use my templates to cut quick, easy strips.

You can also use the templates in image editing software such as Photoshop to overlay onto printable  designs.

There are two ways to use the downloadable templates.

You can print the template and fix it to your chosen bead paper with removable adhesive tape.

Then you can easily cut your strips along the lines with ruler and craft knife.

The picture to the left shows strips cut with that method. As you can see, this gives you the strips cut in your chosen paper and the left-over template strips. You can hand colour those with Sharpies and make more beads. No waste!

Or you can overlay the png file onto an image on screen (see the blue design above) and print it.

Then you can cut along the printed lines with ruler and craft knife or a guillotine.

Visit my etsy shop today to get your downloadable templates.

The handle of the Paper Bead Tools is now the one used when I first made paper bead tools.

There is an updated video here showing the new tools in action.

The original handle we used was bigger and heavier and pushed up postage costs.

However, my workshop students who have tried both handle styles over the years preferred the heavier, more curvy style.

So we took the decision to sell the online paper bead tools with the old style handle.

We have also released our Easy Beady paper bead strip stencil template.

You can see the stencil in the picture above.

If you are interested in buying any of my bead making tools and you live in the UK, please contact me via Instagram.