Turning plain white Tyvek paper into these colorful beads!!

My latest project has been making these beautiful paper beads.  Just the kind of project my happy painting fingers were ready for!  I had been watching several videos online about making these beads and decided I definitely wanted to make some, so I ordered 20 sheets of Tyvek paper from Amazon.  I did see that several of the people in the videos also used Tyvek envelopes that they had saved from something they received in the mail or from a friend that had recently put insulation on their house and had some of the extra tyvek paper.  I was very surprised at how strong this paper is, I couldn’t even tear it!  But it did submit to the coaxing from my heatgun to make some very interesting shapes! 

To begin making these beads I first crumpled the paper up, then flattened it back out for painting.  I knew that would add some dimension as I painted these white sheets of Tyvek with several colors and layers of acrylic paints.  I made sure to add in some glitz by painting on some metallic gold paint as you can see from these pictures.

After I painted the front side I let it dry and then I also painted the backside.  Once the paper was completely dry on both sides, I cut it into strips.  Some of the strips I cut into long triangle shapes, some I cut into other various shapes and sizes.

Once I knew the paper was well secured I used my heat gun to begin “melting” the paper strip to itself and help it to create textures and curls in the “bead”.  

I am already picturing all the fun things I want to make using these beads!  Definitely jewelry and I have a few other fun things in mind that I would like to try!

 I hope you enjoyed seeing how these beads were made and will drop back in for a visit when I post the pictures of the resulting art pieces made from these beads!

Until next time……

…..I Wish You Peace