rose petal beads

[Marianne]

I brought this up in Calendula's pages, but thought it deserved a page of it's own. If you're of the artsy craftsy nature, this sure would be a unique gift! And since the petals end up being like clay, who says they have to be round beads?

I saw a necklace with rose petal beads that was at least 40 years old. The beads were black and still had the rose fragrance!

Here's one site that tells you how to make them:


http://www.care2.com/greenliving/rose-petal-beads.html

 

[Homemaker]

I've heard of this before and I think it is a wonderful idea. I don't have any roses besides pasture rose. And, I don't think those will work for it. I would love to try it. Are you going to give it a try?

 

[ORChick]

I have instructions somewhere for making *rosary beads* from rose petals. Sounds sort of fun, but I don't need a rosary, and don't wear beads as a general rule, so I've never been too tempted. I should think that any sort of rose would work, and you could add a bit of essential oil if they aren't too fragrant. Sounds like the sort of thing that my Catholic grandma would have had, had I had a Catholic grandma

 

[Marianne]

Yes, one of these days I'm going to try making something from the rose petal 'clay'. I had a blast one year making things from different homemade clays - coffee ground clay, dryer lint clay, cinnamon clay, etc etc. I made a bunch of small Christmas tree ornaments for a little table top tree. Used tiny lights, filled in with dried flowers and it was darling.

Little hearts made with the rose petal clay for Valentine's Day or toppers for birthday presents are the first things that comes to mind. I used to take scraps of lace, beads, fancy buttons (whatever I had) to make really fancy package toppers instead of using plain ol' ribbon bows. I just hot glued stuff onto a piece of poster board so it'd be easy for them to take it off the package and use again if they wanted. It was nice, everyone always commented that they didn't want to open the package (with my el cheapo gift inside!!) as it was so pretty.

 

[CrimsonRose]

wow how do you make coffee ground clay? rose petal clay will have to wait till next year since my roses just stopped blooming...

 

[Marianne]

I can't find the webpage now! Of course, it was years and years ago. I do have it printed out..somewhere. There was probably 20 different 'clay' recipes on there.

I seem to remember that it was one cup of flour, one cup of coffee grounds, 1/2 cup of salt and enough water to mix into a clay. I know I used damp coffee grounds, so I didn't have to use as much water. Seems like the second time I made it, I used a little coffee instead of the water.

You might have to use more flour as that's the binding agent. The finished projects are air dried and look like stone. They should dry hard and not crumble. Most of mine were just cut out with a cookie cutter into basic shapes. I used whole cloves. bits from old potpourri, little cinnamon sticks, tiny dried flowers, odds and ends, etc on my ornaments, using a cool melt glue gun.

Even the recipes for homemade playdoh can be a great medium to work with and the projects don't have to be flat as they hold their shape fairly well. I made literally dozens of roses, leaves. I tinted the leaf mixture with green food coloring as used them as is. The roses were painted with old nail polishes after they dried. I loved the pearl colored ones. Some I would paint the edges of the petals with a red shade, then go over the whole flower with a pearl. I still have some of them, they must be at least 15 years old by now.

The drier lint clay looks like light blue denim (I made little baskets, put in a foam block, glued on moss and old potpourri flowers).

I'm a pretty good 'trash' artist. My favorites are a couple of wooden boxes covered with onion skins (the papery part on the outsides of the onions) and one box that has an egg shell mosaic. That one took for-e-ver to do.

 

[CrimsonRose]

wow that is so cool! I used to make jewelry and such with polymer clay but that stuff got so stinking expensive... we have the natural red clay here in our yard and I've thought of using it for some projects but I'm not huge on the terracotta color...

Never even knew you could make your own clay... I so have to try this! bet it smell much better than the clay at the stores as well! thx again!

 

[Marianne]

LUCKY YOU!! I'd love to have some of that red clay! I read how to wash it to end up with really smooth clay for pottery projects. I also wanted to try pit firing with cow patties, the way Indians (and other cultures) used to do it.

Now I'm getting all fired up to do some creative stuff! No pun intended. But today I'm caulking and crap in the upstairs bathroom. Erg. I'm so sick of constructing.

 

[ORChick]

Speaking of different modeling media, I have made some Christmas ornaments out of spiced applesauce - just plain applesauce (drained some if it runny) mixed with enough ground cinnamon (cloves, allspice, whatever) to make a dough. Roll it out, cut to desired shapes, and allow to dry. I use my dehydrator on low; oven would work, or, probably just leaving it in a warm spot for a few days. A friend used to make mini-gingerbread people out of this mix, make a little hole in them while not yet hard, and then string a ribbon through and attach to Christmas presents. I have a larger "gingerbread man" that I use as a tree topper. -- I used the scraps to make little pot pourri balls - they smell nice but I have them hidden in the toes of Christmas stockings because they look like little goat droppings!

 

[Marianne]

Yes, I have a few of those, too. Man, they smelled sooo good that first year! They've kind of lost their stink now, dang it. That happens after 30 years of hanging on to something. Oh wait....not everything loses it's stink after 30 years.