Liz brought in complete kits for everyone to work, with the potential of creating a necklace, a bracelet and a pin, and many examples of her own completed beads and jewelry, with plenty of extra raw material to draw on, and the group set to work to learn this new, to them, artform.
She explained that the history of paper bead making goes back to the early Industrial Revolution, when paper became much cheaper and more accessible as a material, partly as the result of wood pulp's being introduced into the process, much cheaper than the earlier, prized, rag paper.
The Victorians had a craze for paper beading, making portieres, those curtains in doorways, from large beads, and jewelry of various kinds from smaller one. Even their dolls had paper jewelry. And Liz herself made a giant necklace, some years ago, for one of the 20 foot tall puppets resident at the local public library, who come out for special parades, such as today's Founder's Day, which coincided with our program meeting.
Since some members have young relatives they might want to teach this skill to, and since others incorporate beads into their stitching, they foresaw a number of uses of this approach, using simple inexpensive materials to create lovely objects.
Evie designed and created a pin, here in its final draft form
and Lyna made a supply of beads, using magazine paper and tissue paper, which she plans to incorporate into a necklace using other glass beads in her home supply.
Florence plans to make a large number of beads, do the finishing work, then use memory wire to create coiled bracelets.
Ginny created a bracelet which she wore home, and Sue is seen here in the midst of making a bracelet for herself.
And here's Ginny's finished work
Nice afternoon of fun with laughing, always a cheerful group to work with!
Our next General Meeting, the last of the current program year, is the Picnic, hosted by Carol P. at her home, on Sunday June 7, and members are reminded to let Carol know what food they plan to bring so that she can organize the event.
Also, Tuesday of this week is the monthly daytime stitch in, first Tuesday of the month, from 1-3, and the regular Wednesday evening stitch in continues as usual every Wednesday from 7-9. The stitch ins continue throughout the summer.
