Making Jewelry with my children is a lot of fun. The store bought kits work well, but I decided to try and see about making our own beads. While searching, I discovered there is actually a website based on those fantastic "Dummies" books. Some of which include, Jewelry Beading For Dummies, and Making Candles And Soaps For Dummies. Tons of great info on website! The TLC how stuff works website below is also a good resource for making beads...
Clay Bead Project for Children
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/clay-bead-project-for-children.html
Use polymer clay, which you can find in craft stores. Look for brand names like Sculpey, Kato, and Fimo. You need an oven to harden the clay, so supervise the children for this project.
1.Condition the polymer clay before the kids work with it.Conditioning the clay softens it slightly: Knead and squeeze the clay between your fingers until the clay can stretch without breaking immediately. You need to condition the clay only once, so you can put it away for later at this point.
2.Warm the conditioned clay between your hands and fingers.This step helps it to become more malleable.
3.Roll the clay and fold it back into itself several times, then pinch off a piece of clay for each child.Fold the clay onto itself until you can pull the clay and it stretches rather than breaks apart.
4.Have them roll the clay on the table with the palm of their hand or between their two palms in a circular motion to make the bead round.Shoot for a finished bead size around 1/4 inch in diameter or so, to keep the baking time down. You can of course make bigger beads depending how long your little artists are willing to wait to string their beads.
5.Insert a round toothpick through the center of the bead.Make sure the hole you create reaches through the entire bead so you can insert the string through the bead. To ensure that the bead doesn’t end up with an exit wound on one side, insert the toothpick until just the tip comes through the other side. Then flip the bead around, and insert the toothpick in the same spot it exited. Gently reshape the bead as necessary.
6.Bake the beads according to the packaged directions, using a glass, oven safe container.Polymer clays can be baked in the oven. Look for brand names like Sculpey, Kato, and Fimo.
7.Remove the beads from the oven and allow them to cool before stringing.To create some beads with a little more interest, choose two complementary colors. Condition each color separately then roll each into a log. Twist the two logs together, and then pinch off bead-sized bits. Round the beads with your palm. The more you work the mixed bead, the more the two colors blend together. So if you want to blend two colors to make a new color, this is a great way to do it. But if you prefer a marbled blend of the colors, don’t overwork the clay.
ROLLED PAPER BEADS
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/bead5.htm
These rolled paper beads are colorful and shiny -- perfect for making all kinds of necklaces and bracelets. You can coordinate your jewelry with any outfit just by choosing the right paper. Go for something designed and decorative, or find out what fun colors and patterns you can create just from the pages in a magazine.
What You'll Need:
Old magazines or other decorative paper
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Craft glue
Yarn or dental floss
Spray acrylic sealer
What To Do:
Tear out two or three colorful pages from a magazine. Use a ruler to mark an inch along the long edge of a magazine page. Continue making inch marks along the page. Starting at the first 1-inch mark, cut a long triangle from the magazine page. Repeat until you have 20 to 30 triangles. Your triangles should look something like this.
Starting with the wide end of the triangle, roll it around a pencil. Continue rolling until you reach the point of the triangle. Place a dot of glue at the point of the paper, and smooth the point down.
Roll carefully to keep your bead symmetrical.
Slide the paper bead off the pencil. Repeat until you've made 20 to 30 beads, depending on how long you want your necklace or bracelet to be.
String the beads on yarn or dental floss. Tie the ends of your necklace or bracelet together in a double knot.
You can combine colors in all sorts of ways to give your bead jewelry different looks.
Spread newspaper over your work surface, and place the beads on the newspaper. With an adult's help, spray acrylic sealer to give your beads a shiny finish.
