Our Weekly Tip: Create Beads from Memorial Flowers

Credit: behance.net/gallery/7182487/ExplodingSmashed-flower-series

Our Tip of the Week: Flowers are a thoughtful and traditional way to cherish lost loved ones and grieve their departures. Floral arrangements have long been a way for guests at a memorial service to pay their respects and offer condolences. Unfortunately, flowers are quick to dry up, and they’re generally disposed of not long after the service. Flowers are fleeting, and are certainly not a lasting representation of the life well lived by those who have passed. Why not take those beautiful flowers and turn them into something that will last forever? We suggest fashioning beads from the funeral flowers, and creating lasting pieces of jewelry for your family members and you. The beads can be used for necklaces, key chains, rosaries or any number of decorative pieces. Regardless of what you make with them, you’ll always have a beautiful reminder of your loved one.

Credit: RosaryShop.com

How-to Suggestion: Start by taking a handful or two of dried flower petals and crushing them into small pieces. Any kind of flower will work. Then, knead polymer clay (you can use any color, but make sure it’s translucent) until it’s soft. Take a sprinkle of crushed flower petals and work them into the piece of clay. The bits of flower should be speckled throughout the clay. Then, simply take small pieces of the clay and roll them into whatever size and shape of beads you’d like. Thread a piece of wire through the beads (leave a little space between each bead), then place the wire across an oven-proof dish (so that the beads are suspended – you don’t want them to get mushed sides). Check the clay’s packaging for temperatures and bake times. Remove your beads from the oven (let them cool!) and they’ll be ready to be transformed into meaningful, beautiful works of art.