Mothers day

Rose Petal Beads DIY

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Dried rose petals

I’ve wanted to make beads from rose petals for years but for one reason or another, I just never got around to it. Now seemed like the right time to fulfill my hankering for this particular craft after I recently read a blurb about Canadian scientists publishing research linking heart health and mental/emotional wellness. This news reminded me of the organization, Heartmath, which has been studying this very concept for years, with guidelines, apps, and products of its own. The connection between the heart and emotions has long been intuitively understood, with hearts being the most recognizable and universal symbol of love in the world, and anyone who has suffered a break-up or loss can attest to the very real chest pain that ensues. Just as there is a connection between the gut and mental and emotional health, the same is true for the heart, as the Ottawa Heart Institute has recently scientifically confirmed.

What does this have to do with rose petal beads?

Roses are not only the romantics of the plant world, they also have a long history of being traditionally connected to heart health, overall cardiovascular health, supporting aging, and emotional support especially concerning grief and depression. There are traditional uses beyond health that focus on connecting the earthly to the ethereal, most often seen in religious contexts. In the ancient days of gods and goddesses, rose garlands were often put on goddesses’ statues to honor them. In A.D. times, when Mary, Jesus’ mother, took the place of the former goddesses, her statues were the ones graced with rose garlands. These garlands eventually turned into prayer beads which have been part of religious practices since at least ancient Buddhism and Hinduism, but in the Catholic church they are known as a rosary. The rose petal rosaries are therefore the most common use of rose petal beads, but they can and are used in other forms of jewelry and crafts.

How to:

Starting with fresh rose petals is ideal, and if you can gather them in the morning they’ll retain the most scent. I only have dried rose petals right now so that’s what I’m using. To start with dry petals, rehydrate them by soaking them in water for about an hour. Next, drain them, then add them to a blender with a small amount of water to make a paste. I’m starting with 2 cups of petals, and will add 1/4 cup of water at a time. Fresh petals do not need to soak, only rinsed, then put them into the blender with the same proportions of 2 cups petals to 1/4 cup water to start. Add more water as necessary to make a paste. (The traditional method is to use a mortar and pestle instead of an electric blender, but I’ve never been proficient with that particular tool myself. Feel free to get your arm workout in though if that suits you better!)

Step 2

After the mixture is a paste-y consistency, warm it up on the stove to get some of the excess water out. This is also a good time to work the mixture with a wooden spoon a bit more, and if using cast iron, the mixture resulting beads will turn out darker than any other pot or pan material. The goal is just to get excess moisture to evaporate, not to cook the roses at all because then the scent will dissipate before making it into the finished product, which would be quite a shame.

Step 3

Let the mixture cool a few minutes in order to be able to handle holding small amounts and rolling into balls. Keep in mind that the balls will shrink as they dry, so aim to make them twice as big as you actually want them to be when they are finished. If you are planning on threading them, it’s important to go ahead and create a hole by poking through a needle. Since the balls shrink, so will the holes, so making a bigger hole than you expect to need is important, and you can even dry them with needles or thread stuck through them to prevent the holes from closing. While the beads dry, be sure to rotate them around the string or needle to keep them from melding together.

Step 4

Place them on a towel to dry in a place where they can remain for about a week, depending on how much water you were able to get out during the warming on the stove step. Be sure to turn them a couple of times every day so they dry evenly and without flat spots.

That’s it!

Now you can make them into earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rosaries or other prayer beads, or anything else that you want to do with them. Some other home ideas would be to string together a small number of them to place into drawers for scenting, keep some around for adding to ribbons around gifts, or place them in bowls to set out to subtly scent rooms. Let me know what you make if you try this! (My beads are still drying so I’ll update this post with pictures once they are completely dry and ready to use.)

Last Thoughts

Mother’s Day is approaching so it just might be the perfect time to create something unique with rose petals, or if you are getting married soon or have bouquet for another reason, a beautiful way to keep those flowers around forever is to make beads from them. Scent, after all, has the most direct route to the memory part of the brain so that would be such a lovely way to spark memories of a special day.

May your spring be full of flowers and your days sweetly scented🌹.

**I am affiliated with Mountain Rose Herbs and could earn a small commission on links to MRH. This does not affect what I share or promote.**

DIY Bath Salts Mother’s Day Gift

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What mom doesn’t treasure her bath and beauty time? Whether you are making a gift basket for your mom as an adult, or helping little ones make gifts for your partner, natural DIY pampering gifts are easy to make and will actually be used and appreciated. If you are working with little ones, essential oils need to be handled with care because they are so potent they should not be put on the skin directly without a carrier, and also the scents can be overwhelming if you are using a lot all at once.

To make a custom jar of bath salts, you have some options. You can use sea salt, Epsom salts, pink, grey, or black salt depending on where you are and what you fancy. Epsom salts are best known for aches and pains, but pink and grey salts can help with those too, and they have a high mineral content. Sea salt and black salt are detoxifying, and all the salts are good for the skin. You can also blend different salts together if you can’t decide or want to make sure you cover all the salt benefits. Whatever salts you use, just fill a jar with them, and add the essential oils you want in a ratio of about 10-25 drops per cup, depending on how strong you want the smell. Mix with a chopstick and cap tightly.

To make it a moisturizing bath soak, you can almond oil or grapeseed oil to the salts slowly, mixing the blend as you pour. You will want about 1 3/4 cup salts, with 1/4 cup oil. When the oil and salts are all blended together, add your essential oils and stir some more to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Since this is a total of 2 cups, you can use 20-50 drops of essential oils.

If you are making this for someone who takes more showers than baths, then a salt scrub is another option. You want more oil than salt in that case~ 2 cups of almond or grapeseed oil, 1 cup of fine sea salt, and 20-50 drops of essential oils. You can always make an herbal oil first, then add that to the salts. Add the oil directly on top of the salt, then add the essential oils and stir well. You can use sugar instead of salt for a gentler body scrub. Prepare the exact same way as the salt but use brown sugar instead.

Another option is to add dried herbs to the salts. This of course looks lovely but can make a huge mess, so adding a large sized muslin bag or two to the jar of bath salts is a nice touch. The bather can spoon in however much they want into the muslin bag, then place it into the bath for a nice soak that they don’t have to worry about cleaning up later. Lovely herbs to add are rose petals, calendula flower tops, seaweed, and/or oats. The proportions are completely up to you, and in fact you can just use herbs for an herbal bath without any salts, or just add the salts and herbs together, or add essential oils to the mix as well. There are no hard and fast rules, so just follow your aesthetic sense or look to your (or her) favorite products to get an idea of what proportions might be most appreciated.

As always, be sure to label whatever you make and to write down the recipe. Here are some more DIY gift ideas if bathing isn’t the best treat for your gift recipient. Have fun with whatever you are making and Happy Mother’s Day to all the hard working mamas out there. Please subscribe for weekly posts about herbs, natural health, and green beauty, and please share with anyone who might benefit from this article.