Pennywise Arts: Handmade Paper Jewelry

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Handmade Paper Jewelry

Our featured designer for the month of April was Stephanie Loomis. With all the retreat hoopla I forgot to schedule her projects on the blog. So sorry Steph!

Stephanie is a Southern Belle and makes her home in Georgia. Stephanie has been around the PWA community for almost as long as I have! She’s visited us here in the Seattle area for a retreat and I’ve have the adventure of visiting her and attending a retreat in Georgia. Fun stuff!

Steph calls herself and accidental artist. I’ll let her explain.

“I call myself an Accidental Artist because I came to art by a circuitous route--via literature, theater, photography, music, education, and rubber stamping. Now I fully embrace mixed media and altered arts as my expression and my therapy. I teach secondary school literature and composition two days a week which leaves me studio time. I frequently incorporate art elements into my literature classes to teach symbolism, point-of-view, and anywhere else I can combine literature and art. I've been married since 1987 and have three daughters born 1990, 1993, and 1996. God is good--all the time. That's the motto of my moments and the inspiration of my life.”

For her first project of 2011 Stephanie says, “I was inspired by the March/April edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. There was an article there about making paper flower jewelry. I tweaked it to meet my skills.”

This is one of the gorgeous paper jewelry pieces that Stephanie submitted for her assignment.

There is a close up picture at the end of the tutorial where you can really see and appreciate her attention to detail.

How To Make The Paper Flowers

Supplies:

White Glue, old paper (newspaper, old books, whatever), fun foam (or felt, which is what the magazine used. I happened to have to foam on hand.), acrylic paint, water, alcohol ink spritzer (Shimmerz by Tsukineko; Walnut ink by Tsukineko; Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels), micro beads from Pennywise Arts

Directions:

1. Paint papers with watered-down acrylic paints. Be messy.

2. When paint is dry, Spray with alcohol ink spray.

3. Tear paper into strips about 1" wide.

4. Tear strips into pieces 1/2" - 1" long. (The magazine recommended a barrel shape, but that was too hard for me to do consistently.)

5. Twist each piece at one end and fan out the other end. This is a single petal.

6. Cut or punch a circle from the foam.

7. Assemble the flower by gluing one petal at a time, beginning with the outside of the foam circle and working inward in layers.

8. Let dry. (Showing another color combo)

9. Apply glue to the petal edges with a toothpick.

10. Dip in micro beads.

11. Let dry.

How To Make The Necklace:

Decide how the flowers will be clustered.
Glue them to a base of felt or foam.
When dry, trim the base so it doesn't show.
Use a paper piercer to create holes in the base to add jump-rings, wire, and/or ribbon.
Embellish as desired....

Here is a up close shot of Stephanie’s beautiful and beadiful necklace!