Handmade Jewelry: New pattern samples for March
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I just got in a new set of paper samples this weekend for my small book earrings and my paper bead earrings and been hard at work experimenting with new designs. This time around I ordered a lot of my favorite kind of paper, Japanese washi.
Japanese washi a medium weight paper made with mulberry fibers. There is a variety of different types of washi, but the kind that most people are familiar with, and the kind I use in my jewelry is Chiyogami or Yuzen washi. This type of washi has a variety of colorful and decorative patterns silk screened on the plain mulberry paper base. One thing about making jewelry with paper is that you have to pick patterns that will look good on a small scale, otherwise you’ll just get large blocks of color instead a mixture of colors and patterns. Chiyogamil washi is perfect for this purpose.
I got a lot of washi where the dominant color is green to make more green book patterns for my “Wearing o’ the Green promotion on my Etsy shop. So look for
Some of the other papers I’m testing for new jewelry include Pasticcio prints, which are silkscreened cotton rag paper from India.
I’m also intrigued by this new type of paper made of recycled cotton viscose called Stardurst Chiffon. Basically it has a semi-translucent texture that feels similar to fabric.
It has a nice glittery background and is printed with delicate patterns of flowers and vines. What I like about this paper is that fact that it has glitter in the background without it becoming too overpowering like so many other papers that use glitter in the base of the paper. So I’m very interested to see how this paper turns out in my test designs. So keep an eye out!
