handmade photo paper beads...

Want another way to wear your favorite photos? Try this. Start out with a photo. I chose one that I took while chaperoning my daughter's field trip to Chicago ...
In Photoshop, I created a new 8x10 canvas, pulled the photo in, and played with color tinting and fading...
I printed this out onto matte photo paper and let it rest a couple days. Then I painted on it with translucent watercolors, very lightly whitewashed it with gesso, rubbed on some distress inks, spritzed it with water, and heat set. Wow, that photo paper can really take a lot!! ...
I sliced it into varying sizes of horizontal strips, curled them onto wooden skewers, gluing up the length of the strip, and applied a couple generous & thorough coats of satin exterior sealant. Voila. Beads. I wirewrapped them into a very simple necklace ...