How To Paint Your Own Wooden Beads

Posted by adortalukdar on February 15th, 2014

Even though there are thousands of different styles of wooden beads available to purchase on the internet, you may not be able to find a certain type of bead which fits your exact mental picture of what you want. If you get an idea stuck in your mind and you just can’t shake it, be proactive and take steps to customize existing beads to create exactly what you want! Painting plain wooden beads is a great way to get exactly what you want! Although painting your own beads can take a lot of precision, it will also be a lot of fun, and once you know what you are doing, you will find that you can put tons of new ideas into practice.

What you will need:

 First you will need to buy a packet of wooden beads. If it is your first time painting this kind of bead, then it is advisable to choose chunky ones, because these will be easier to work with. Once you get used to the skills involved, you may consider swapping to smaller beads. You will also need non-toxic acrylic paint, non-toxic acrylic gloss, a bottle of Gesso (paint primer) and two paint brushes (a super fine one and regular art one). A Styrofoam block and some skewers or cocktails sticks will also come in handy, but you should only purchase these sticks once you know the size of the holes through the wooden beads. The sticks should be small enough to fit into the holes, but large enough that they would not go through with ease, so that the bead will firmly sit on the end of the stick. It should look like a lollipop. This means that you can paint the whole bead without getting paint on your hand or without the paint rubbing off on the surface you would otherwise rest the bead on.

What to do:

Begin by putting all of the beads on sticks. This needs to be done before you start painting. Cover the bead with a coat of Gesso, and then stick the other end of the cocktail stick into the Styrofoam, so that it is standing up and will be kept away from the other beads. Do this with all of the beads, and leave them to dry. Apply more coats of Gesso if necessary. When this is dry, paint the bead with the acrylic paint, starting with the main color first, if you are using more than one. Leave each bead to dry on the Styrofoam block before adding extra coats or detailed designs. Use the superfine brush to add the details in later. Hold onto the cocktail stick and gradually spin it round for the best control. Once the detailed designs are completely dry, cover the beads with a layer of the clear acrylic gloss to protect your design from chips and scratches. Stick them back into the Styrofoam to dry. Once they are done, gently remove the beads from the cocktail sticks and skewers and thread them onto a necklace or bracelet.  

Plain wooden beads are easy to customize. Once you have got the hang of it, the possibilities are almost endless for plain wooden beads! You can get more information from pandahall.