About 11 years ago, I started my journey in Uganda, Africa and being a highly creative person (who is interested in creating jewelry of glass, paper, (polymer) clay, seeds and anything I can lay my hands on that will create a unique piece), paper beads were an eye catcher.
Upon bringing Ugandan paper beads with me to my home village and selling them at Christmas markets to support the women we were working with, I was told: “oh paper beads, we used to make them a lot in the 60s/70s”. This remark made me wonder what the actual history is behind paper beads.
And actually, I haven’t been able to find a lot while doing some online research. In the first place, if you do some research about paper beads in general, you will find a lot of information of paper bead projects in Uganda and Uganda being the contemporary cradle of paper bead making.
The only historic information I could find about paper bead making was that making paper beads in Europe – and in particularly in the United Kingdom – goes back as far as the Victorian Age (when women would roll strips of wall paper on knitting needles to turn them into fashionable beads and when perfume was used to give the paper beads a nice smell) and which made a revival in the early twentieth century.
Should anyone know more about the history of paper beads in either Europe, Africa or Asia, let us know.
At Amayinja Crafts, we try to combine paper beads with beads from other African countries. We combine paper beads with recycled glass beads from Ghana and even make polymer clay beads with Africa inspired colours and textures.
Amayinja Crafts 