Paper Beads

 YOU'RE WONDERING? What part does a cricket play when it comes to paper beads? In this instance none at all. I happened to have seen it sitting on the fence and was able to get a shot of ONE of the chorus of crickets that have kept me awake at night.  
At first it reminded me of camping in the woods by a lake, communing with nature and all that.

BUT!

Hearing this every night ALL night is disturbing. Even during the day I thought I heard them because the sound had become embedded in my brain much like a favorite song gets stuck and you sing it over and over and ...  I'm not familiar with the life cycle and habits of crickets but I'm hoping they've about run their course.

National Geographic has beautiful color pictures. The articles are interesting also. I torn these 4 pages out of an old issue  to use as colorful paper beads. I have become fascinated by the ones I've seen on You Tube.



These are fish not well known to man. The red item is a plastic drinking straw.



These are photos of unusual fish. I suppose I should elaborate but I don't remember what I read about them.

The You Tube videos showed more than one way to roll a bead. Two of my favorites are:

Hectanooga 1 and BeyondBracelets.

It's not good to watch too many methods of doing something because then you get confused. I had planned to place glue on the entire sheet and then use the straw to roll it into one tube. Then I would cut it while it was still wet into tube beads. As you can see, I didn't do that. No Problem.

Fold down a small edge of one strip and begin rolling it around the straw. Once you are past the fold apply school glue down the entire strip and roll until you get to the end making sure to keep the paper straight and tight.

Since there was no glue placed on the fold where you began it will be easy to slide the bead off of the straw and lay it aside to dry.

I know I've left out some pictures of steps you should take, so I'll just put the You Tube version from Hectanooga1 right here.

These aren't the best photos in the world but here is the finished product.

THAT'S IT***