Making more beads

The big kahuna bead

The big kahuna BEFORE we added gold leaf and ute and gold ute

• These are paper beads made by wrapping long strips of straight or wedge shaped paper around a barbeque skewer.
• Then we wrapped them with threads and our favorite yesterday was adding gold leaf to them...made them look like authentic expensive glass beads....
• after we got the base done you pounce them with an ink which makes the UTE stick....
• Dip them into the UTE and heat with a heat gun...keep dipping till you like the way the bead looks...
• at this point you can add things like micro glitter, micro beads and pearlex to add more color and depth....
• i added some more of the gold leaf to some of my beads and put one last coat of UTE on them...
• AWESOME beads then.....they really are gorgeous ...the pictures do not do them justice...

The Ute and the ink that binds it...notice the ute is leaning from the heat gun getting on it...bytw there has probably been a 100 beads made from this jar...and there is still alot...it also comes in gorgeous colors like gold bronze black opalescents too

Some of the beads that i made

Beads before adding UTE

a few finished ones on their stick

Yesterday was a busy day....i showed several friends how to make the paper ute beads i made back in march and then we had a summer birthday party for members of our quilting bee...WWWQwonderful women who quilt Bead before heating with the heat gun

After the heat gun...or should i say during?

Margaret patiently wrapping beads with threads

A pearlex and ute covered bead-isnt it a pretty delicate green

Heating the ute

Strings and thread and yarn to wrap the beads before the Ute

Margaret wrapping beads with thread

Dipping the bead into the UTE

Heating the ute which gives it a clear glass like glaze

Ille adding silver microbeads to her green bead

Jazz saying hey guys i am here quit making messes and PLAY with me

more beads ...some of these were permanently stuck on the stick because of the ute...now we need a dremel....to rescue these.
a lizard pin made from a bag of dollar store lizards wrapped with fabric or thread and given the ute treatment..with an added pin back...fun stuff..should have painted him with lumiere to make him even more gorgeous

close up of a finished bead

Marsha made a BIGGG i mean ReALLLY BIGGG paper bead ....she wants it for a quilt
This is the really big bead after being foiled with gold leaft, dipped in regular ute and gold ute
Can you tell we really like this bead??
one more picture of our favorite HUGE bead...those hemostats are about a foot long if that tells you how long the bead is
some of the finished beads amid the mess of bead making

Another Ille bead

Marsha thinking of new ways to stir up trouble..she needs that shirt...here comes trouble

One of the birthday girls with her fat quarter fabric gift...she loves cats

Kay, Another of the birthday girls guarding the food