Paper Bead Necklaces

Several months ago I was introduced to beautiful necklaces made by Ugandan women using recycled magazines. Typically, these women come from harsh circumstances and selling necklaces has paved a way for them to leave lifestyles and make a change, often enabling them to support their families and pay rent.

Amazima ministries, led by Katie Davis, has trained a group of women to create wonderful, brightly beaded necklaces, each one different from the other in length, color and design.  For our next adoption, we have been working with 147 million orphans selling these necklaces as a fundraiser.  A portion of each necklace not only helps the mother who is making them, but it also helps feed an orphan, support an adoption and reuses materials that would otherwise end up in a land-fill!  Such a wonderful ministry and I am so thankful for what they do!

Although we are quite inexperienced and in no way desire to compete with these talented women, we decided to try making the necklaces ourselves to get a little taste of this Ugandan specialty.

Using a very basic online instruction guide, we cut various magazine pages into triangles.

Applying a tiny amount of glue at each tip,

we then rolled them up tightly using a small paintbrush to form paper “beads”

Tallinn's beads

Addie's beads

Finally, we strung the beads onto a fishing line

 and knotted them tightly together to form necklaces.

My finished necklace

Not necessarily masterpieces like those of the Ugandan women, but I’d honestly rather buy one and support a woman in need than try to make my own. (I’m also not sure I could come close to making such beauty.)

The kids are already ready to make more and, as it’s so easy,  and we have a grip of magazines, we’ll probably add a few to our collection.