Memorial Jewelry from Polymer Clay Flower Petal Beads

Dried Flower Inclusions Can Help To Bring Healing to Sad Situations of Loss:

I received a sad email from a subscriber the other day. She told me about the unexpected loss of a friend and was looking for ideas about memorial jewelry. I encouraged her to think about drying some of the ceremony flowers from her friends funeral and do a polymer clay inclusion to make flower petal beads.

There is a book out right now that I've heard great things about, although I've not yet read it. The title is Bead One, Pray Too by Kimberly Winston, and I figured this would be an appropriate post to make mention of it.

The book talks about creating personalized strands of beads for the purpose of reflection and prayer. It has some good information on how to make both religious and non-religious forms of these meaningful pieces of art jewelry or prayer beads.

I've talked about polymer clay inclusion techniques in previous posts, but here's a quick recap. You need a couple packs of Premo Translucent clay. Break up the flower petals into tiny pieces and knead them into the clay, making sure they're thoroughly mixed and not all in one clump. Then roll the clay into balls in the palm of your hand. Get them as smooth as you can by putting cornstarch in your palm and rolling again. If you make loose pebble shapes it won't matter if the beads are round or even the same size.

I think if you were to make a string of these memorial jewelry beads with the dried flower petals from a friends funeral, and then add other complimentary beads or memory charms, the effort would be very much appreciated by loved ones. Spending the time to make this project would also bring some healing to such a sad occasion.