Designing Paper Beads and Paper Jewelry for SIA: Paper Sculptures

Shelbee at Shelbee on the Edge is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the paper artwork portfolio by American artist Karen Hawkins. She chose this artwork because we have had 10 selections in a row that were colorful and she was ready for a more neutral piece. You know that she had me at "paper." Of the artworks shown on the artist's website, I selected this wall hanging from her "book cover + paper collages" section because I liked the various shades of blue and the geometric quality to the overlapping strips of paper.

source: https://www.karenhawkinsstudio.com/book-cover-paper-collages

Even though two weeks ago I was wearing a heavy sweater, puffer vest, and scarf for the last SIA challenge, the weather has shifted into warm spring mode for the moment, so I needed a very different kind of outfit. I knew I wanted to reflect the "various blues" quality of the artwork, so for my base outfit, I chose a pair of light denim skimmer shorts and a navy short-sleeved blouse with vertical pleats down the middle (mimicking the vertical strips in the artwork).

Then it was just a matter of selecting accessories to finish off the look.

OOTD 4/21/26

Between wears, I sort of forget the awkwardness of the keyhole neckline on this blouse - I have nothing against this style of neckline, but it makes adding necklaces a little weird. Rather than overthinking it, I just picked out 3 necklaces to layer, hitting the short, short-medium, and long lengths: a DIY multi-tone blue paper bead necklace (described more below), a slate blue and silver necklace from CJ Banks (which wasn't quite the shade of blue I remembered; I wish I had picked out one that wasn't so muted but live and learn), and a DIY mixed metal flower link and chain necklace.

I made the paper beads from this calendar image of herons flying against a light blue sky with darker blue mountains beneath them. Because I wanted my beads to be on the chunky side, I cut my strips longwise (in this orientation, across)...which meant that rather than each strip having both light and dark blue, the strips cut from the sky were light and the ones cut from the mountains were dark. I thought the variety in colors across the beads made for a cool-looking necklace, and it did a good job of representing the "some lighter blue pieces, some darker blue pieces, all pulled together to make something with many shades of blue" quality of the collage.

I am always happy to start pulling my ballet flats into heavier rotation when shorts weather arrives, so I picked out my navy and white striped ballet flats purchased in the Great "Payless at the Mall of America" Ballet Flat Adventure of 2015 to add some textural and pattern interest to the look.

My all-DIY daily bracelet stack started with a paper bead bracelet set I made to coordinate with a multi-blue tank top in my closet, in the color scheme of navy, white, periwinkle blue, sky blue, and gold. The top navy and white bracelet is actually not part of that set! It's a supplemental bracelet that I like to add to other paper bead bracelet sets. I filled out the stack with dark blue lapis lazuli bead, mixed metal bead, and blue glass bead bracelets. {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

Designing paper beads to create a paper bead bracelet set to coordinate with a specific piece in my wardrobe is always fun. And as you can see with this outfit, I find ways to wear those bracelet sets with other outfits too.

The second paper bead bracelet started out as this gorgeous periwinkle blue sweater on the cover of a Coldwater Creek catalog. I cut 1" wide triangular strips longwise (here, up and down), edged them with gold Sharpie, and rolled them. I love how the sweater's knit and the detailing on it translate on the finished beads to give them visual texture and interest.

The third paper bead bracelet with shades of darker blue came from this full-page ad in The Economist magazine. I cut the strips longwise (here, side to side) again in 1" widths. I didn't love the white text; even though white is in my color palette, I often prefer no obvious letters on my beads, so I covered the white on the strips with blue marker. Once again I edged the strips in gold, which made a big difference in the final appearance of the beads.

The bottom paper bead bracelet came from a page in a magazine (I think Audubon magazine) with a gorgeous image of clouds against a bright blue sky and lighter blue water underneath. The green/brown tones of the island was not part of my desired color palette, so I just covered that part of the strips with navy Sharpie. Once again, I edged the strips in gold before rolling them into beads. I liked that these beads had more contrast on them than the other two; that makes for an interesting set of paper bead bracelets.

I would not normally wear a paper bead necklace, paper bead bracelet set, and paper earrings, but if there was ever a time, this was it! I have made a lot of paper beads from alumni magazines and mailers, but this time I used a postcard mailer from my and my husband's alma matter to make a pair of paper earrings {tutorial here}. Our school's colors are dark blue and grey, and the mascot is Sammy the Owl...hence the owls on these earrings! (If you get mail from a school with colors like the dreaded burnt orange and white of UT-Austin, you have my sympathies.)

Now for the main event of every SIA post: revealing our Rabbit Imitating Art!

I considered a blue bunny for this role, but my heart was stolen by this beautiful and relaxed female magpie harlequin rabbit with a majestic dewlap and stripes reminiscent of the paper strips on the artwork.

Naturally, her first instinct when presented with this paper collage was to attempt to eat it, but it turns out that the artist had really attached that paper securely and it wasn't going anywhere. Well, no matter, she was being paid for this job in carrots anyway, so she posed herself in an insouciant loaf before the artwork for a period of elegantly lolling about.

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating (and Improving) Art post!

To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on Shelbee on the Edge.

Are you feeling the warm spring weather yet where you live? Do you like to combine various shades of blue in an outfit? Are you a denim/chambray lover? Have you ever owned any paper jewelry? If you were to be paid for a short job in something that isn't money, what would it be?

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