How to Make a Bracelet From Old Maps
I love old road maps and collecting them. I craft with the maps and I have made some cool Christmas ornaments before.
These map ornaments had map paper beads on them, which gave me the idea for this map bracelet.
Old maps are a great resource to make paper bead jewellery with. They come in lots of lovely colours and if you use maps of somewhere special this gives the jewellery a sentimental feel.
I used a rotary cutter, map, knitting needle, glue, elastic cord and metal eyelets to make the bracelets.
First, I cut the road maps into long even strips.
Next, I wound the map strip tightly around the knitting needle and then used glue to secure it in place.
Carry on making map paper cylinders, you will need about 20 paper beads for each bracelet. Then stick a 4mm coloured eyelet/grommet into each end of the bead.
To give the paper beads a glossy finish, brush them with crystal clear lacquer. The quickest and less messy way to do this is to place the beads on a wooden skewer. Then rest the skewer over a tray. Use a brush to apply the lacquer.
Next, cut a length of elastic string about 1 meter long. Thread both ends of the string onto large-eyed needles. Using elastic string makes it easier to take the paper bead bracelet on and off.
Then, thread the needle on the right-hand side through the bead to the left-hand side. Next, thread the needle on the left-hand side through the bead to the right. Then, pull the elastic string tight, so that the threaded beads butt up next to each other.
( More photos and video on the blog).
After all the map paper beads have been added, thread the needles through the first bead again. This will turn the strip of beads into a cuff. Simply tie off the string and cut away any excess.
You can also use these map beads to make a pendant necklace.
I recently also made a bracelet out of homemade avocado buttons (see here).
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Wow! This is so pretty! I can't wait to try it! Thanks for sharing!