Jewelry Lovers

Twisted tissue jewels are bright and gay — and far more durable than such a fragile paper suggests. They are simple to make and it is fun creating designs. If you wish, of course, you can use purpose- bought tissue to make these boldly beautiful jewel effects. But, providing you have a colourful selection to hand, it is quite unnecessary to buy tissues especially for this craft. Used tissue has the advantage of being cost free and is, in fact, the ideal material, because the techniques involved in making tissue jewels include cutting, tearing, crumpling and twisting the paper.

Basic jewel shapes

There are only two basic jewel shapes — ‘stones‘ and ‘strings‘. `Stones,’ irrespective of size, are always made by the same method. First a piece of tissue paper is screwed up and rolled between the palms into a ball shape. Wrap the tissue paper ball tightly in a piece of tissue just large enough to encase it completely.

Then cover the ball with a larger piece of tissue. Pinch and twist the ends of this piece of tissue to form a neck, having spread the inside of the neck paper with a little clear general purpose adhesive. When the adhesive has completely dried, snip off the neck with a pair of sharp scissors and slightly flatten the ball in the palm of your hand to give it a domed top and a flattish base. This is to make the stone easier to mount onto the surface to be decorated.

`Strings,’ whether long or short, are always made by the same method. It is difficult to make successful ‘strings‘ using strips of tissue over 23cm (9in) in length, but the effect of a longer ‘string‘ can be achieved by butting two or more strings end to end when mounting the jewels.

Cut a piece of tissue to the length required, making it 2.5cm to 6cm (l/2in to 2 1/2in) wide. Fold the long cut edges neatly towards the centre.

Moisten the forefinger and thumb of both hands with a little water and twist the strip of tissue into a string. Work slowly and carefully from one end of the strip to the other always keeping the twisting movement in the same direction.

To make a bangle

Cut a piece of cardboard 5cm to 7.5cm (2in to 3in) wide and long enough to encompass your hand at the knuckles plus 1 cm (tin) overlap.

Mark the overlap on the ends of the cardboard. Then, to join into a circle, spread a thin coat of adhesive on both inner surfaces of the overlap.

When the adhesive is sticky form the strip into a ring, overlapping the glued ends by 2cm (tin).

Use paper clips to hold the overlap securely and slip the bangle over a bottle to hold it in a circular shape while it dries. When the bangle is completely dry, remove it from the bottle and give a gentle squeeze to form a complete circle.

Now cover the bangle with tissue to provide a colourful background for your jewels. Cut a piece of tissue equal to the circumference and 1.2cm (1/2 in) wider than the bangle.

Spread the whole outside of the bangle with a thin even coat of adhesive and spread a little adhesive on the inside top edge of the bangle. While the adhesive is still wet, press the tissue paper into position around the bangle, and sticking 6mm (tin) overlap over the top and inside the bangle (fig.3). Don’t worry if a few wrinkles appear in the tissue paper.

Spread a little adhesive along the inside bottom edge of the bangle, and stick down the tissue overlap.

Cut a piece of tissue equal to the circumference of the bangle and fractionally narrower than its width. Spread a thin coat of adhesive over the inside of the bangle and stick the tissue into position while the adhesive is still wet. While the bangle is drying, prepare `stones‘ and ‘strings‘ you will need to decorate your bangle.

If you are using ‘stones‘ and ‘strings‘, stick the ‘stones‘ onto the bangle first. Spread the underside of the stone thinly with adhesive and, when sticky, press firmly into position on the bangle.

`Strings‘ may need to be re-rolled before gluing. Quickly re-twist them into shape. Don’t apply adhesive to the ‘string‘ but apply a thin thread of it to the bangle, drawing the thread in the desiredpattern.

Then press the ‘string‘ into position along the glue line. Use tweezers if required to help position the ‘string‘.

When the bejeweled bangle is quite dry, spray inside and out with clear varnish. Spray lightly (the dyes in tissue are inclined to run if the paper gets very wet) and when dry, give a second coat.

For greater durability later, add a third coat of varnish.

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