Lostock Hall Academy

At the beginning of January, I made my usual 6 week trek up to Manchester to visit my elderly mother.  This visit had a few more added extras a) it was my birthday b) I had a day's work in a school in Preston.

I had a fabulous day, working with year 10 and 11 who were working on their GCSE Art and Design Textile.  The girls were great, very keen and produced some lovely work.  I feel honoured that a few asked me for my autograph, which I have to say is a first.

 

The trouble with paper beads

I have been exploring paper beads recently and having great success and actually loving the result. ( see earlier post - Making Beads from Paper)

Until that is I try to go bigger. My aim is to make some sturdy hollow beads but every time I push them into shape they seem to collapse. I can form the paper into a domed shape but as soon as I put it down the centre pops out, as you can see in the photo.

I'm not really sure how I'm going to resolve this problem. It maybe that coiling around a piece of wire doesn't give you enough torque in the rolling process. In a few days time I will receive a proper paper bead rolling tool so I hope this will be the solution.

Watch this space!!

Making beads from paper

I had a little dabble at creating beads out of paper over the Easter. The first set of beads, made from strips of paper I had attempted before but I didn't like the elipse shape that resulted. I know it all depends on how you cut the paper and I really wanted to figure out how to make a lovely round bead. It's more straight forward than I thought and I was pleasantly surprised at the result, I've just got to figure out how I'm going to use them in my work now. Maybe simply strung with a few pearls.

The second set are woven beads. A little more involved than the round paper beads. Much as I enjoyed making them I can't see me using them in my work as they are too geometrical but they might be incorporated in a future workshop.