Unrolling New Beads

…or rather rolling them up for the new year.

The first batch of beads being offered is here and available in our shops on Etsy, Ebay and Storenvy.  Unlike the beads we’ve made in the past which were designed by cutting and rolling random strips from magazines – these beads are made with strips that are measured and counted to make a specific style of bead.  It’s really quite amazing how many types of beads can be designed from just rolling strips of paper every which way. 

It’s been a little over a year since I started ReInnovations.  My bead rolling obsession began during a visit to San Francisco.  I was working on a campaign at Forest Forever.  A month before I had bought a paper bead bracelet at Whole Foods, and thought it was the most amazing piece of work.  When I was in San Francisco, a man tried to sell me a box that he said contained a laptop.  I gave him some cash – he looked like he needed it pretty bad.  He gave me the box.  I then began to regret taking the box because I realized if there was a laptop in it – it was probably stolen. I was relieved to find that the box was full of magazines.  I had been meaning to start making paper beads, and now I had the incentive to do it.  Those first beads looked really rough.  But after a year – I feel I’ve really gotten it down.

Before I began upcycling paper into beads – I was upcycling coffee bean burlap from local roasters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I used the burlap to make messenger bags with a cooperative project called Basement 6.  I plan to pick that project up again in the near future.  I’d also like to begin experimenting with making wrapper bags within the next year.

For now though, it’s all about the beads.