One of the most enjoyable projects for me right now is bead making with Nature’s Handmade Paper (I’m a sucker for the artsy craftsy!) Towards the end of last year I taught the ladies how to make beads from magazine paper. They loved the results and started thinking of making a separate line of jewelry to go alongside their paper products.

Measuring and cutting out the magazine page for the beads.

Rolling the bead on a toothpick, painting on glue to hold it together.

Ta da! Magazine bead creations.

The only problem is that magazines here, unlike in the US where catalogs come unbidden in the mail every week, are hard to come by. Those that we do find, a national geographic here and there, have better use in the library. So instead of relying on magazines, we’ve started making beads from their own paper, from the scraps that would have been thrown away. The paper is a bit harder to work with, and the colors aren’t as bright, but the beads come out looking just as natural and lovely as their paper does. The next step will be finding a good finish to harden and make them durable. After that, their jewelry line can go as far as their imagination does. Then, off to the craft shows!

Two kinds of paper, two styles of beads.

Beads without finish in a jar.

Also, Happy Birthday Peace Corps! The organization celebrated its 50th anniversary on Tuesday, March 1. Here is a nice tribute to Sargent Shriver from the PC website.

http://shriver.peacecorps.gov/