How to Make a Beaded Bracelet From Live Flowers

Making the Beads

• 1

  Harvest enough flower petals from live flowers to fill a one gallon bucket.

• 2

  Place the flower petals in a sauce pan. Fill the sauce pan with enough water to cover the petals and simmer on a stove top over low heat until the petals wilt.

• 3

  Remove the flower petal and water mixture from the heat and let the mixture cool for approximately one hour.

• 4

  Pour the mixture into a blender. Blend the flower petal and water mixture thoroughly until the texture is smooth.

• 5

  Dump the blended flower petals back into the sauce pan and simmer over low heat for two to three hours. If the mixture starts to dry out, add more water. A dry mixture burns and becomes brittle instead of staying malleable.

• 6

  Remove the sauce pan from the heat and allow the mixture to dry overnight. Once dry, the mixture has a consistency resembling bread dough or soft modeling clay.

• 7

  Remove a pinch of the flower petal material and sculpt it like modeling clay into a bead shape. Make round beads simply by rolling the flower petal clay between your fingers into a spherical shape.

• 8

  Place the beads in a cool, dry place to harden for one day. After one day the exterior of the beads resembles dried leather but the insides are still soft and impressionable. Avoid direct sunlight – this can discolor beads and make the beads dry too quickly or over dry.

• 9

  Pierce the beads with a wooden skewer to create holes for stringing. Allow the beads to dry for an additional 48 hours.

Making the Bracelet

• 10

  Measure your wrist. Cut a piece of stretch cord to match your wrist measurement plus three inches.

• 11

  String one flower petal bead onto the stretch cord. Position the bead approximately one inch from the end of the cord. Tie the bead in place using a single knot. This bead acts as temporary stopper that helps keep strung beads from falling off of the bracelet.

• 12

  String your flower petal beads onto the stretch cord. Stop stringing the bracelet when approximately two inches of stretch cord remain.

• 13

  Untie the knot holding the first flower petal bead in place. Remove the bead. Hold both ends of the stretch cord together.

• 14

  Knot both ends of the stretch cord together as close to the flower petal beads as possible. Tie a second knot on top of the first for extra security. Snip the ends of the stretch cord approximately one-sixteenth of an inch from the knot. Hide the knot by slipping a flower petal bead over it. This also protects the knot from undue wear and tear that could lead to unraveling.