The above picture is the very first jewelry set of a necklace, bracelet and earrings that I made that was designed entirely of paper beads. I made this set in 1991 and it was mostly experimental. I had bought a small little craft gadget called a "Bead Crafter" that was basically a jig for making paper beads. When I first got the tool, I experimented with wrapping paper, ripped out pages from magazines, even scrap paper. The results were interesting, but they weren't exactly what I envisioned and I was worried of course about durability. Wrapping paper made for a rather flimsy bead.
Later, I experimented with painting the wrapping paper beads with a kind of clear acrylic coating to protect the beads and make them a little harder. A light bulb snapped in my head, "What would they look like painted?". I made a bunch of rolled beads out of scrap paper (I believe this particular set was made out of an old chemistry exam) and hand painted each of them with acrylic paint. The result was paper beads that had a sort of plastic look. They were still light, but much harder and much more waterproof. That set spawned a small series of painted paper bead jewelry.
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