Rose Beads for Kiarah

Ah! The things you find on Pinterest. You know, just ambling through and I came upon a necklace of rose beads. I had never heard of such a thing so I checked into it and it's true. You can make beads that are hard as a rock and smell just like roses for years and years. I decided to give it a try.

When I first came to San Antonio Palópo and saw the garden on the property below my house I was flabbergasted. It is full of avocados, gardenias, limes, coffee bushes, papayas, apple trees, brugmansia and a plethora of flowering plants and trees for which I have no name. Among the lot are English roses and wild roses. No one except the caretaker and I are here to appreciate the flora at this time so I didn't feel too guilty when I plucked twenty or so heads from sweet smelling rose bushes to make these really cool beads. I just really hoped it would work seeing as how I just scalped the lot.

First I put all the petals and only the petals in a ricer - at the time we had no gas and the aluminum electric ricer was the only appliance I had to boil water. From everything I've read that was a no-no. You really should use a non-stick pan (I assume they mean Teflon-coated) or preferably a cast iron pan. Apparently the iron doesn't rob the petals of the much-needed oil which preserves the smell and the aluminum does. I added a few drops of Drakar Noir (cause I have it and I love it) to enhance the perfume.

Anyhoo, I submersed the petals from both kinds of bushes in a bit (maybe a cup) of water and cooked them until the petals were a bit transluscent - like onions. It took about five minutes. Then I put petals and water into the blender and blasted the concoction until it was of the consistency of a smoothy. It was an ugly brown so I added a bit of magenta acrylic paint unnecessarily as it turns out, to make it look pinkish. I'm just telling it as I did it. I'm sure there's the "right" way.

Then I put the smoothy back in the ricer to cook it - stirring constantly. The whole globby glue took about ten minutes to become the consistency of jam. If it only looks like applesauce you've undercooked it. Keep cooking and stirring. I turned the mess out onto an aluminum foil covered cookie sheet and left it to dry in the sun for about four or five hours.

Eventually I saw that it was coming together just like the paper mache clay that I make. The water evaporated and the mixture was clayish. As soon as I could roll it in my hands to make beads, I did. Now you have to skewer the beads somehow to make the holes. I used an eighteen inch length of wire. You could use nails I suppose but I strung the beads on the wire and supported the length of wire between two rocks and left the string on the porch step in the sun to dry. I turned the beads every half hour or so to make sure they didn't stick to the wire. Once they stick you will never get them off - at least that's what I read.

Once the sun set I brought the beads-on-a-wire into the house and left them for 24 hours just sitting. It was an amazing transformation. The house smelled wonderful and the beads got smaller and smaller until they were half the size of the ones I'd originally rolled. Two days later I easily primed them from the wire and I now have 18 BLACK rose beads. Today it's one week later and my rose beads are black as coal, hard as rocks and smell divine. I've read you can make beads out of many flowers. I will investigate. I do know that there are at least twenty more rose buds in the garden to pick and I will surely be doing that. I plan on finding some interesting and unique stones that I will add to the beads to make a one-of-a-kind necklace. There is a little girl in my family whom I have not yet met. She will be the recipient of a Guatemalan rose bead necklace one day - from her auntie Dawn.

New Earrings from Paper Prezzies

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These unusual earrings in copper, black, ochre, burnt sienna and white would add that perfect splash of color to a monochrome outfit. http://etsy.me/1UR33a3

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Abstract paper earrings depicting symbols which resemble an African or Maori design. http://etsy.me/1NYgzDF

These colorful and unusual earrings are made from the hand torn pages of recycled paperbacks - six layers to each earring which ensures their sturdiness. http://etsy.me/1K2edTx

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