A psychedelic chicken and a mathematical object

I forgot to post this when I made it back in May. A card was required for a birthday, so psychedelic chicken came to the rescue! I drew a weird chicken with paisley pattern, and cut it out and gave it a speech bubble:

I decided to leave it black and white because I quite liked the effect of the intricate pattern, though it would also look good done in clashing colours. It could be a do-it-yourself colouring card.

To go with the card, I made a fold-out 3D object. I posted it flat, and it has to be assembled by folding each layer at 90 degrees. It's not as neat as I'd have liked because you have to use a craft knife to cut the slits and it turns out it's really hard to cut curves in pearlescent card with a craft knife.

Making paper beads

It's both my aunts' birthdays in early March, and this year I made them both necklaces made of paper beads. These are so easy to make (if a little bit of a faff) and they look great (if I do say so myself). 

If you're not keen on making them, you can very easily buy them. Get them from a supplier like this one and give some money to Ugandan women at the same time. If, however, you'd prefer to make your own, there are lots of Youtube videos and online tutorials to show you how, so I'm not going to do that here. This is a good, simple set of instructions if you want them. 

I made two very different necklaces with mine. For one aunt, I made them from Peter Capaldi. Magazine pages are good type of paper to use, as they're thin and glossy and good colours. I chose Peter because I thought my aunt would like the resulting beads - mostly dark grey, with pinkish highlights. Here he is being cut into triangles:

Peter Capaldi in the Radio Times being cut into triangles

Then I rolled them up, glued them and left them to dry, then varnished them. If you put them on cocktail sticks this is much easier to do. Mr T came up with this great idea for a stand, scrumpled up tinfoil:

Beads drying on cocktail sticks

Once varnished (two coats) and dry, they look like this:

Finished varnished paper beads

I strang them with grey seed beads in between, and a few silver-coloured metal ones at the front. They're from an African stall at Portobello Road market in London:

The finished necklace

For my other aunt, I used normal white paper and coloured it with permanent marker. You only need to colour the edges of the paper where it'll show when it's rolled, not the whole triangle. Then I did the same as with the Capaldi ones:

Beads drying

And I strang these ones with blue and red seed beads, and chips of malachite for super-bright contrast:

The finished paper bead and malachite necklace

Modestly-priced expensive jewellery

You might have seen these glass beads with a silver core, which are sort of like charms - you pick a few that you like and string 'em on a chain. They're blimmin' expensive, generally up to a tenner a go. Well, while in Bainbridge's (yes, John Lewis) looking for a clasp for my grandma's necklace (which I got in Fenwick's in the end) I found the very same beads for £3 for a pack of two. They may not be sterling silver, but they look just as nice. So after much dithering, and a trip to Fenwick's to see what they had (I bought the chain there actually, as it was a pound cheaper at £2.95) I bought the bits to make this:

I strang it when I went back to uni, it was so easy - you don't need any tools, a moron could put this together. And I love it so much I think I'll be buying more and will make others. You can change it, of course, whenever you want, or if you want to make it more permanent you could put a jump ring through the hole and make it so the beads can't come off. I think I'll leave it and then I can mix and match to my outfits. Though I love this with its bright colours. I think a black and silver one would look nice, or perhaps with a bit of light pink in too. I'll be making my mother one as she'll love these nice coloured beads.

And I did check the price of ready-made ones after - one similar was £30 in a cut-price jeweller's. Mine cost £11 and about two minutes' work, and it's just the way I wanted it. Fab.

My grandma's birthday

It's grandma's birthday so she has been made a necklace very similar to the one I made my other grandma, but they don't know each other so it's OK, there will be no potential for necklace-duplication-related embarrassment.