Community-based Paper Beading in Romblon

A group of women in Sugod, Romblon, Philippines called the Payawpao Orchids made these beautiful handcrafted paper bead things. The group is supported by The Meaningful Shop an online store that supports the crafting of women from developing countries. The store is both a non-profit-organization as well as a fair trade org. They also support a group of women in Uganda.

Here are some of the women as they work on their beads. They also have a child sponsorship program where people can help in sending the children to school.

handmade paper bead bag

All the products in the shop are completely 100% fair trade! For now, there are five ladies in the group. Soon enough, when the group is making enough for themselves, more women will be invited. The goal basically so that they will have enough livelihood to help the women send their children to school.

handmade paper bead container

handmade paper bead stacks

It's a an ingenuous way of bringing the skills and talent of the community of Sugod together while helping them provide for their family. If you wanna know about the org more, do check out their website: http://www.meaningfulshop.org

Making your own paper beads

Here basics on making your own paper beads! So start collecting all scrap paper all over the house and start rollin'! (paper beads that is)

Materials that you will need are the following:

• colorful magazine or posters
• scissors
• pen
• ruler
• needle or toothpick
• varnish
• clear varnish
• fishing wire/nylon wire

Cut 4 inch by 1 inch triangles out of magazines or colored paper. Choose colors that you like.
Just put a bit of glue to the pointy end of the triangle. A glue stick or a tiny bit of liquid glue will do fine. From the wide end, you may use a bamboo stick, a toothpick or a ink tube from pens to roll the paper shaped into a triangle to a cylindrical bead shape. You can make the spiral symmetric with the middle if you try or let it tend to one side. Just make sure the narrow end sticks tight and the beads are kept rolled up. Apply more glue if necessary. Slide the bead of the stick. Brush the beads with a solution of glue and water (one part glue and two parts water). Dry the beads. You can hang then on a string to dry. Make sure they don't stick to anything while it's drying. Yay! Now you're ready to bead!


You can push your creativity as far as you can with the beads. Art Fire came up with this beautiful set of painted beads!

Chinese paper beads from Crafty Stylish!

Paper Jewelry Rocks!

Very nice...I love all things wrapped in wires. This will be so pretty on my ears! Paper beads wrapped in brass wire from Sockpr0n


Here are some super creative, interesting and inspiring ideas of putting those garbage to use. Elegant, and exciting paper bead jewelry all over. Above is a purse made of paper beads. I got this photo from Paper Bead Girl. I encourage you to visit their site. They have an amazing collection of creative paper bead use.



Very elegant bracelet which is a combination of brass guitar string and pages from a French History book from Craft Stylish!


This one's inspired by the story of Aesop from Paper Beads. This was made for the celebration of Earth Day. Here the beads were coated to with Diamond glaze to give it that laminated glossy look.

I found the bracelet you see ove from Chronicles. The beads are baby pictures of new borns in the family and was given as a gift to a mom-slash-granny.