”Friday I’m in love with paper beads…”

For most people a used magazine or old newspapers can be nasty trash. But for crafty and creative minds, it is another medium to turn into an interesting work of art and can even perhaps be source of income for them.

I was introduced to this craft couple of years ago while strolling around the exhibit during our province’s festival. There, they featured local crafts and products of each town. Then I saw colorful necklaces and bracelets which they said were made from papers. One town had it as their form of livelihood which helped the local womenfolk earn some money.

In a wider perspective, this craft has helped the Ugandan people improve their poor plight. The BeadforLife is a project that makes beads out of papers and creates them into beautiful jewelries. They also sponsor community development projects such as health, education, housing, etc. out from the sales they make from the selling the beads and handcrafted jewelries.  Who would have thought that a simple piece of paper can do wonders for poor people?

All you need to create these fancy beads are pieces of papers, glue, pair of scissors, a stick and some varnish and you’re done. We have plenty of old colorful magazines which were perfect materials for my beads. Look at what I’ve made; I magically turned them into cute beads:

One of these days I’ll share this craft to our neighbors who have nothing better to do but just sit and gossip all day.