My love of paper crafting began in my early 20s when I learned to fold origami flower ball segments. I used to glue the pieces to hand-rolled stems to make flowers and gifted them to family and friends. My most significant origami endeavor was a set of 200 lily flowers, all folded and assembled by hand as table favors for my wedding guests.
Paper crafting fell to the wayside after that due to moves, career changes, and the pursuit of my college degree; still, the desire to be creative remained. It was a 2019 Facebook post and readers’ comments from issue number five of Daphne’s Diary, a magazine printed in the United Kingdom and dedicated to creative lifestyles, that sparked the idea of making paper beads.
The Facebook post came from my cousin and displayed beautiful, handmade bracelets incorporating lava beads for use with essential oils. In issue five of Daphne’s Diary, meanwhile, a reader commented that she liked to take pages from the magazine and fold them into origami stars. Another reader said she used the pages as wrapping paper, and another said she used the publication as inspiration scrapbooking. I had wanted to do something creative for a while, and all the comments from Daphne’s Diary reminded me of how much I love working with paper. But I also loved my cousin’s idea of making bracelets. The idea of making paper beads is a combination of all that inspiration.
I rolled my first set of tube beads in April of 2020, using pages from Daphne’s Diary. After three months of testing different shapes and perfecting my techniques, I finally felt confident enough to make my first paper bead bracelet. The Bead Aisle opened in August of 2020, and since then, I have been making and selling paper bead jewelry.
