Upcycling: How to Make Paper "Cords"

In this post, I wish to show you how to make paper "cords" out of grocery store advertisements.  These "cords" are used as the "bones" for sculpting items out of paper and white school glue.

First, you need a ruler and a grocery store advertisement.  Put the ruler along the cut edge as shown.

Hold down the ruler while pulling the rest of the advertisement against the edge as shown.

Keep making strips of paper the width of your ruler until you reach the end of the sheet, like this.  Don't throw away this smaller piece though.  You can tear it in half along the ruler's edge and use the scraps for building your paper sculpture.

Now it's time to do the "fun" part.  Unfold one strip like so.

Now fold the strip along its length as shown.

Fold the strip in half lengthwise again, as shown.  When you're done, you'd have four long sections of paper if you opened up the strip.  But try to keep it folded like this for the next step.  (You could also just go ahead and fold all of your strips before doing the twisting step, and then complete the twisting all in one go.)

Now you twist the paper, pinching with one hand and twisting with the other until you get a "paper cord".

When you reach the end of the paper strip, it should look like the loose "cord" as shown.  The little bundle is a bunch of paper "cords" I'd made and bundled together with a bread tie wrap.  It helps keep the bundles from being a colossal, disorganized heap.

These "cords" could be confused with fuses for firecrackers or something, but I assure you they're just grocery store advertisements just twisted into "cords".  I'm showing everyone how to make these for making art, not chaos.  (Unless you're using them to sculpt C'thulu, in which case, you're making chaos.  :-P)

How can you use the paper "cords"?  You can use them to make the paper eggs or any other item you can sculpt.  The process feels a little like building a clay coiled pot, except with paper strips and glue coating the coil.  

I've also used the "cords" to make part of a medical ID bracelet and also the two leaves to a Kindle cover that's remarkably sturdy for paper.

I find this activity to be relaxing, although it's highly repetitive.  It can take a week to make a large batch of "cords".  If you plan on doing a large sculpture, you'll want lots of "cords".  I know for other forms of paper sculpting, they tell you to use armatures (cardboard, balloons, etc.), but I like the results with this method.  And it doesn't take near as long for the sculpture to dry either.