Wanna know how to make hippy style jewelry? Easy – use my latest paper bead printables!
This week on YouTube, I unveiled my two latest paper bead designs and one of them is hippy style.
You can watch that video by clicking here.
The other design is very different and has a Natural History theme depictiing all things natural, such as flowers, an owl and some bugs.
There is a link further down the page that will take you to my Google Drive where you can download my free printables.
Also in this week’s video on how to make hippy style jewelry, I unveil my latest very simple invention.
It’s for helping people with painful hand conditions to make flat, rectangular paper beads that are perfect for making bracelets.
So if you or anyone you know has problems with their fingers/hands, watch the video.
Since I began teaching paper bead making workshops, I have met many older people who find it hard to hold a bead tool.
That is why, a couple of years back, I changed the design of my paper bead tool handles back to the original curved shape.
I had abandoned the handle with the slightly curved dip in favour of a straight handle made of dowelling because it was less expensive.
But many of the older people in my workshops found using a handle with no shape to it quite frustrating and clumsy.
And since I introduced people to my method of using a popsicle stick to make flat, rectangular or square paper beads, I have had similar feeback.
So I set out to make it easier for people with painful or poor functioning hands to use my popsicle stick method.
You can make your own using popsicle sticks and foam grippers or you can buy one of mine in my Etsy shop. Or, you can simply wrap an elastic band around a popsicle stick.
A large elastic band cushions the edges of the stick and the rubber makes it less likely to slip out of your grasp.
Ok – so why the BoHo paper beads last week and now the hippy beads this week, plus all the other BoHo hippy style stuff I have made?
Back in the late 60s, early 70s, I was very keen on learning how to make hippy style jewelry.
But my best idea back then was to try and find slate pebbles with holes in on a Welsh beach while on holiday.
I loved the black leather cord that hippies were threading stones and small bells on and I longed to have lots of dangly pendants on leather cord.
I was a clueless 15 year old, really hacked off that my dad wouldn’t buy me a hunk of slate on a leather cord.
My answer to that was to flounce off, leaving my parents and Grandma on the beach, while I ‘ran away’.
I kind of wrecked that last holiday in Barmouth with my parents just by being sulky teenager.
I ran as far as the amusement arcade juke box where I was accosted by a vagrant who claimed to be a Hell’s Angel.
He tried to entice me to his car but that’s a whole other story. I pretty soon ran like the wind back to the beach and the safety of my family.
There, I found my dad working away with his penknife on something in his hand.
I was too angry with him to take any notice of what it was.
Later, he presented me with a perfect slate pendant, hanging on leather cord, which he had fixed in a much more refined way than just tying a knot.
He had also engraved my name and two small designs in it. He had ground the hole through with the tip of his penknife.
At last I had my hippy necklace!
My life was complete!
I had big blue plastic sunglasses, a psychedelic sun hat, a faded grandad vest and a slate pendant on a leather cord.
That was 50 years ago and I still love all things BoHo/Hippy.
And whenever I sit down to paint or design, I tend to end up with a very hippy look to whatever I create.
So that’s why ‘how to make hippy style jewelry’ is still a thing for me 50 years on.
But I know the hippy look is not everyone’s cup of tea which is why I designed some natural history paper bead strip sheets as well.
So if owls, butterflies and flowers are more your thing, you might like the other free printable I have for you.
To create these designs, I used some 19th century book images of flowers, birds, owls and insects. These beads also look really beautiful when rolled with my popsicle stick method.
If you are new here or new to paper beading, you may want to check out my video on how to make hippy style beads – I cover both my free designs in that video.
You may also enjoy this video and the free printable that goes with it.
And if you are here because you want my free printables, here is the link that will take you to them. Both designs are in A4 and US Letter sizes.
There are lots more free printable designs on my free printable page.
Please read my Terms & Conditions of downloading and using the designs – thank you.
And for those who would like to use exactly the same 180 gsm/49lb glossy photo paper that I print my bead strips on, check out my Amazon shops.