How to Make Rose Petal Beads

This recipe makes lovely beads from genuine rose petals. Beads like these have been used for hundreds of years for rosaries and personal jewelry. This method is one that works for me. Please experiment with and improve upon this method, according to your experience. My first few efforts were rather, um, "interesting", but with time, my final product improved. May you create beautiful beads!

Harvest and pulping:

Harvest your rose petals on a dry day. Roses are best just after their full bloom. To make enough beads for a necklace or a full rosary, you'll need a lot of rose petals--at least half a shopping bag full.

Remove all leaves, stems, hips, bugs and everything else. You only want the rose petal. Anything else will contaminate your petals and create a lumpy texture.

After you've cleaned all the foreign material from you rose petals, it's time to chop them up. I find a food processor works best. (You could do it by hand on a chopping board, but that will take a long, long time.) You want to chop them up as finely as possible. By now you should have a fine pulp.

After you have chopped up your rose petals, it's time to cook them and age them. I've used two methods and have gotten satisfactory results from both.

Method 1--The Pot:

Place your rose pulp in a pot (cast iron is best). Add enough water to cover the pulp and simmer slowly on the stove. Do not boil or you will evaporate the rose oils and reduce the lovely scent. Traditional recipes say simmer straight for three days, but this may be impractical. I've simmered my roses for half an hour twice a day for a whole week and have had success.

Be sure to simmer your roses at least twice a day. Not only will it help age the roses, but prevent mold from growing.

Add water whenever the water evaporates. You don't want your rose pulp to dry out at this point.

Method 2--Microwave:

Place your rose pulp in small containers. Do your pulp in small batches, or it will heat unevenly. Cover with water and nuke for a two minutes (adjust time according to your microwave strength). Nuke three times a day for a week.

If you forget to nuke on schedule, nuke the first time you remember. If you let a day go buy without nuking, you risk growing mold. (The radiation from the microwave kills any spores that happen to land on your rose pulp.

If you find your rose petals growing mold, it won't ruin the batch. Scoop out the mold spot and nuke.

You can cook and age your rose petals up to three weeks.

The idea behind aging is to break down the cell walls of the roses and make them pliable and able to be rolled into beads.

If you're not ready to make beads, this rose pulp can be frozen for use later. Make sure you seal it in plastic bags, with the air squeezed out or it will dry out in the freezer.

Scenting:

If you made a mistake and boiled your roses too much or originally chose roses with little scent, you can supplement the scent with rose oil. Rose oil can be added to the pulp now, for a longer lasting effect, or can be applied to the dried beads for a finishing touch.

First drying:

Conceivably, you could start making beads with your rose pulp now, but I've found that this makes for a rather wrinkly bead. Some people love this effect, and it sometimes looks like dry wood. If you have enough rose petal pulp, feel free to experiment.

I find that drying the pulp, powdering it, then making clay of the powder makes for a smoother-textured bead.

Spread your rose pulp out thin on a plastic plate or tray. Allow to dry. I've spread mine out on drying trays in a food dehydrator, but have found a hair dryer, low oven or sunshine work as well. A quick drying is best, for it gives the pulp a crumbly texture.

Pulverise:

Pulverise your dried pulp into a powder. I've given my pulp a buzz in the food processor to give it a good powdering. I've also used a spice grinder. Both yield an average grain. I've sifted this powder through a fine sieve (such as a tea strainer), then pounded the coarser bits to a powder in a mortar and pestle, sifting and pounding as I go. (I do this while watching TV.) This takes me a long time, so if you can find a way of powdering your pulp that doesn't take several episodes of CSI:Miami, please do.

The finer your powder, the smoother your beads will be.

Make beads!:

Once you have your powder, you can add water (or even rose water to strengthen the smell), slowly (an eyedropper works wonderfully) until you get a clay of moulding consistency. (if you add too much water, you'll have to wait until it evaporates a bit.)

Roll your beads. Keep in mind that the beads will shrink as they dry, sometimes as much as half their size. The finer the powder, the less the shrinkage will be.

Set your beads in a cool, dry place out of the sun and let them dry slowly. If they dry too fast, they won't shrink and compact, and will be more susceptible to crumbling. Slow drying yields a hard bead.

Holes:

If you have a jeweler's drill you can drill holes after the beads are dry. If you don't, you'll have to poke holes through before the bead finishes drying.

Beads accept holes after the surface has had a chance to dry and harden somewhat. If you try to poke holes through while the bead is still wet, you'll find your bead will fall apart. If you wait until the bead is completely dry, it may be too hard. I find that between one and three days' drying, depending on size of bead (3-5mm, one day. 10+, day 2,3) is ideal for poking holes.

A large needle with quadruple-thick thread works well. After the beads have had a day or so to dry, string the beads on the thread, giving each bead room for drying. Allow beads to finish drying on the thread, sliding them up and down the thread to keep them from drying to the thread.

If your beads are large enough, you can thread them onto bamboo skewers or large hat pins. If your beads are tiny, you may want to thread them onto dressmakers pins and let them dry there. Roll your beads regularly to keep them from sticking to the skewers. If you wish to use your beads with jeweler's pins, you can thread them on the jeweler's pins to dry.

String your beads:

Your beads are ready to be made into jewelry. You are only limited by your imagination!

Care of beads:

Your lovely rose petal beads are water soluble. When not being worn, store in a cool, dry place--in a container with a packet of silica gel is ideal. Do not let your beads come into contact with liquid. Don't wear them in the shower or swimming. While they can tolerate a bit of sweat, blood and tears, they will dissolve if left in contact with liquid too long. Fortunately, they won't dissolve immediately. But if you find that you hopped into the shower while wearing your beads, panic for five seconds, then remove your beads, pat them dry, if they're not too goopy and set them in a dry place to harden again.

Completely dissolved beads can be reformed back into beads and dried again if necessary. My personal experience shows that beads will absorb water and be soft enough to dissolve after about fifteen-twenty minutes submersed.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

Regards,

Heidi Kneale