Rose Petal Beads: Tips to Make Your Own

Have you ever gotten a bouquet of beautiful roses and hated the thought of having to just throw them away when they started to wilt? One great way to use up the roses and turn them into a long lasting, beautiful craft is to make rose petal beads. These beads are beautiful, easy to make and fragrant. Here are some tips on how to make rose petal beads to get you started.

There are a wide variety of different recipes and methods of making rose petal beads, however this is the one I have had the most luck with.

Start with a few handfuls of rose petals. You'll need to chop them down as small as you can get them. If you have a food processor you can toss them in there grind them until they are really small. If you don't have a food processor you can chop them with a knife into as small of pieces as you can.

Next, take the chopped petals and put them in a cast iron frying pan. If you don't have cast iron you can use any frying pan, but cast iron seems to give better results. Put just enough water in the pan to cover the petals. Simmer them on the stove for about an hour, making sure that the water doesn't boil. If the water gets too hot the roses will lose their fragrance. After the first hour turn them off and allow them to cool.

Repeat the simmering process 4-5 times over the course of a day or two until they turn into a soft sort of mush or paste. Remove the paste from the pan and drain the water from it. You can use a fine strainer or a cotton dishtowel to drain them.

Next, take a bit of the paste, squeeze out any excess water and form it into a ball with your fingers. Keep in mind that as they dry they will shrink, so you want to make the balls a bit bigger than you want your finished beads to be. A good rule of thumb is that they will shrink to about half the size you make them.

Once you have made your ball stick a pin or wire through it to create the hole. Set it aside with the wire or pin still in it to dry. You will want to rotate the beads on the wire every so often as they are drying to keep them from sticking.

If you live in a relatively dry climate the beads should dry nicely on their own. If you live in an area of higher humidity you may want to consider drying the beads in the oven. To do this, string all the rose petal beads on a wire and put them on very low heat in the oven. If you heat them too much they will lose their fragrance...not enough and they could mold.

Once they are dry they will be hard and relatively durable and you can use them in your beading projects. They should not be worn if you plan to be in the water such as for swimming or in the shower.

Red, fragrant rose petals make beads that are a deep, burgundy color. Most other petal colors will make beads that are either shades of brown or black. Either way the beads have a beautiful, organic quality and a lovely fragrance making them a nice addition to just about any beading project.