{"id":170,"date":"2008-08-04T18:54:17","date_gmt":"2008-08-05T01:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/memorial-jewelry-how-to-make-rose-petal-beads-with-polymer-clay\/170\/"},"modified":"2008-08-14T17:30:34","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T00:30:34","slug":"memorial-jewelry-how-to-make-rose-petal-beads-with-polymer-clay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/memorial-jewelry-how-to-make-rose-petal-beads-with-polymer-clay\/170\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Jewelry – How To Make Rose Petal Beads with Polymer Clay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Your<\/p>\n

1) <\/span><\/b>Making keepsake memorial beads using flower petals from a loved one’s funeral.<\/span><\/p>\n

2) <\/span><\/b>Instructions on how to collect and dry the flowers and rose petals before mixing them into the Premo or Fimo polyclay for making keepsake jewelry<\/span> beads.<\/span> <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Today’s questions were sent in by Sally White and Carolyn Bolek. Please note that some of the personal details were edited due to the sensitive nature of this topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Q-1: <\/b><\/span>At a family members funeral we were given memorial bracelets made by the dried petals from the funeral spray. The beads were a brilliant red and all of the suggestions that I see on the net say the beads are brown or black. ~Sally White<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

A-1:<\/b><\/span> Although I don’t know exactly what you have seen on the Internet in regards to making memorial beads, I think the ones you described as brown or black might have been rosary beads. They are often made with the paste of fresh rose petals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The rose beads I make, and probably the ones you received, are made with flower petals encased in translucent polymer clay.<\/span><\/p>\n

To make these memorial beads, start with dried flower petals that are broken or chopped into small pieces. Then, knead them thoroughly into a block of translucent polymer clay such as Fimo or Premo. Fimo’s translucent is a whiter clay and Premo’s is a slightly more yellowed clay. The choice of brands depends on your taste.<\/span><\/p>\n

Click on the following link for a photo that shows flower petal beads made from both Premo and Fimo translucent poly clay: Making Jewelry with Polymer Clay Rose Beads<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Once the flower petals have been worked into the clay, you can create your bead shapes or pendants as you would for any other jewelry making project.<\/span><\/p>\n

As far as getting a deep rich red color, that can be done a couple of ways. First mix in the petals to see how the petals affect the clay. Some petals are strongly dyed and this may color the clay on it’s own.<\/span><\/p>\n

If petals themselves don’t provide enough color, try adding either a few drops of alcohol ink or a pinch of a red colored clay such as Alizarin Crimson. Be careful not too add to much solid color clay or the petals will become hidden.<\/span><\/p>\n

After baking… sand, buff and polish the beads. Then string them into memorial gifts of bracelets, necklaces, tie tacks or even rosaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Q-2: <\/b><\/span>I really want to learn how to make memory jewelry out of dried flowers. I don’t know how many to keep or if there is a special technique to drying them. <\/span>~Carolyn Bolek<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

        A-2: <\/b><\/span>As far as which flowers to save and how many, I would save a whole bowl full of petals. You actually won’t need that many but it’s always better to have more rather than less.<\/span><\/p>\n

Choose flowers with thin papery petals like Roses, Hydrangeas, Freesia, Larkspur, Ferns, etc. Thick fleshy petals like Lilies or Begonias won’t dry very well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take the flowers apart petal by petal and lay them in a single layer on several sheets of paper towel. Cover with several more sheets of paper towel and microwave for 1 minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check to see that the flowers are drying and not scorching. If they are doing well but are still damp, do it for one more minute.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check and repeat until the petals feel dry. You may need to change some of the paper towels if they get too damp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make sure to dry several varieties and different colors of flowers because some flowers loose their color when baked into the beads.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To Sally and Carolyn plus anyone else that’s reading: If you have further questions about how to make polymer clay rose petal beads for memorial jewelry gifts, please use the comments section below. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cindy\"Polymer<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1) Making keepsake memorial beads using flower petals from a loved one’s funeral. 2) Instructions on how to collect and dry the flowers… 59<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,21],"tags":[974,1038,1948,2718,975,994,1039,2740,469],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bead-projects","category-techniques","tag-bracelets-cuffs-bangles-watches-wrist-ankle-jewelry","tag-funerals","tag-inks-dyes-pigments-powders-pearlex","tag-inclusions","tag-necklaces-pendants-lanyards-accessories","tag-qa","tag-tie-tacks","tag-polymer-clay-tools-supplies-organization","tag-translucent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beadsandbeading.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}