Make Beads for Jewelry Making

by The Fun Team - Edited and Expanded

Paper Beads

Paper Beads

There are many ways to make jewelry for example you buy beads at a craft store and string them together with string. Well that's making jewelry but instead of the plain old same old you could make beads at your very own home. Read on if you want to learn..........


1. Clay Beads

You can use air dry clay or use flour and water

With air dry clay the first part is done!

What your going to need is air dry clay, paint and a toothpick. Grab a little bit of air dry clay and get a marker or pencil or rolling pin and roll the clay into a rectangle get your toothpick and shape the rectangle around the toothpick. Done! Wait until it's dry, remove the toothpick and paint it.

2. Dough Beads

Do the same thing except mix flour and water together to make dough/clay. You can use food coloring to color the dough. There are a plethora of recipes available on Youtube if you search for homemade air dry clay, and you can see the exact process.

3. Paper Beads

Cut out long thin paper-length triangles in various sizes from paper, decorate your triangles or use scrapbook paper. You can even use pages from magazines. You can make them as wide as you like, 1 inch is nice and half a inch for smaller beads works great.
Use a toothpick and a glue stick.
Place some glue on the triangle's narrowest tip (roughly about 1 inch in length). Then roll the triangles onto the toothpicks starting from the widest side. Smooth the last bit with the glue on over a few times for a strong hold. Place one side, waiting for the glue to dry, then remove the toothpick after a few minutes. Your beads are done, ready to make jewelry!

The blue paper bead pattern in the image above use to be for sale but it's been out of stock for a long time. We will update the links to the sales page once they are back in stock.

You can find the same shape die cut stencils below they work really great both as a die, as well as a stencil to trace onto paper.

Just click on the images:



You can also buy paper bead rollers but I still prefer a toothpick or a thin steel knitting needle, to me the inside just looks neater. Some people have trouble holding the paper to the toothpick, their hands start to cramp. In this instance a paper bead roller is ideal, you just slot the start of the paper into the groove of the pin and start rolling the handle with two fingers. They look like this:



If you want any of your beads all glossy or shiny like the beautiful store bought beads, give them a coat of varnish. Just paint this on with a small paint brush and let them dry on the toothpick, lodging one end of the toothpick into one of those green blocks of florist foam. I use these two makes, but you can use whichever you like!




You can find some paper bead inspiration here, just open the paper beads board:
Paper Beads

Lastly, no paper, no clay, no problem you can actually use fabric cut into strips too!


Hope you have fun making beads!!

Comments for Make Beads for Jewelry Making

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No email reply
by: Anonymous

There seems to be no reply to the question of "where to secure the template for the turquoise page for paper beads". Please correct me if I'm wrong and direct me to the right place.



From: The Fun Team

Hey there!

So sorry you didn't notice the update to the page, we did the update in July especially to cover that question! Please have a look at point 3 - Paper Beads.


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Love this
by: Sue

Absolutely love these ideas, thank you so much for a short but thorough tutorial and equipment list.

I have always wondered how it was done but nobody gives you the whole story, you have to go search and if you don't know what to search for you get lost! I can't decide which ones I want to do first, but I do know I am going to try!


From: The Fun Team

So glad you found this helpful! Have fun, these beads are really fun to make and the results are always a happy ending!


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Help please
by: MiMi

where can you purchase the bead cut out stencil pattern. I have searched and searched and cannot find that one. any advice would be so helpful

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Is the handout available for download or purchase?
by: jmmteachart

Did you make the turquoise colored handout sheet with the directions and patterns? If not do you know where to purchase it?

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Jewelry making
by: Yvonne

My kids used home made clay to make beads and toys. Hardened the pieces in the oven. They colored the clay with natural food colors before making the pieces and used a toothpick to make holes in each piece before baking in the oven. They exhibited them at their school fete.

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Being creative is the key
by: Addie

This is so fun. Anyone could do it and you could turn this into a passion so easily. If you want to start making jewelry this is the way to begin, without spending much money.

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Thanks
by: Menine

Thank you this is very usefull, I have seen the paper bead method before and didn't know how it was done. This is a great help, I feel like doing this right now. Looks like fun!

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