Talking Trash Day 10: Wrapping it up

To wrap up the Talking Trash project I thought it would be appropriate to literally wrap something up. I found a magazine bead project in Earth-Friendly Crafts for Kids by Heather Smith with Joe Rhatigan, and so the other night, our family spent an hour or so tearing, cutting, and wrapping pages from old magazines. Since our daughter is nearly 2, she needed a lot of help with this project; actually, her role in this project was primarily to help cut and glue. To make your own magazine paper beads, you’ll need:

magazines

scissors

pencils

blue

string of some sort

wood, metal, plastic, or glass beads (optional)

What we did

Basically we tore out colorful pages from old magazines (that will be recycled or donated to the used book shop) and then cut triangle strips from the pages. The base of the triangle determines the width of your bead, so cut the size of your triangles accordingly. After cutting several triangles, we rolled the triangles, starting with the base, around a pencil until the entire triangle (except for one inch) was wrapped. Annabelle then helped with dabbing glue along the last inch of the triangle and then I finished wrapping the triangle around the pencil, pressing the paper snug and rubbing away excess glue. I allowed the beads to dry overnight and the next day we pulled them onto some string.

Other Projects

Before I removed the drying beads from the pencils, I have to say that the pencils were quite attractive. I think that leaving a few magazine wrappings around a pencil is an easy way to jazz up boring yellow pencils.

I have also seen baskets woven out of magazine wrappings and I have seen other kinds of jewelry too. A more skilled artist (or anyone with a fair amount of patience) might consider creating a door curtain, frame decor, or a belt.

Overall, this project was a lot of fun and could be modified for various ages and abilities.

What kinds of recycled art projects have you completed or might like to try? If you have already created art from trash, please post a link to your work in the comments. Thanks!