Lavender Herb Beadwork

Well this is my first attempt at making beads with herbs (no clay) and I am thrilled with the outcome! I did buff them somewhat but not to a shine, as I wanted them as natural as possible.

With my next batch I'm going to see if I can use my pro bead roller to make the beads more uniform, since I'm not so hot with the freehand rolling. Too bad you all don't have Smell-o-Monitors because these babies smell utterly divine! Much thanks to Tina Sams of The Essential Herbal for the initial kit - buy yours here Herb Bead Making Kit and while you're there don't forget to subscribe to The Essential Herbal Magazine. I eagerly await my next one!

Feeling Creative

Firstly, I have to show off my beautiful new Leaf business card holder and Leaf soap dish that I found on Etsy from Pinoak Pottery. Wonderful stuff! Look how cute my cards are in there! Be sure to check out her other wares ;)

I've been in a very creative kind of mood and have been playing around with making beads and jewelry from herbs. Yes herbs. First of all let me tell you I am on an amber kick and nothing smells better to me than a good amber blend. So with that in my head, my first thoughts were to just hot pierce some amber resin chunks and frankincense tears and make a necklace. Well, if you know me, you know there's nothing I enjoy more than reading and researching stuff, so, one thing led to another and before you know it I was experimenting with all kinds of herbal materials. Dug out an old book that I remembered seeing something about rose beads in. They had an excellent article on how to make rose petal beads (it's actually more like rose mush at first). Then I thought to myself, Self, you can do this with petals, and any other herbs that smell good if they're powdered first. I played a bit more last night and went to bed with visions of all the cool new but still imaginary creations dancing around in my head. Woke up still feeling that ol' creative buzz and today is going to be official "Herb Bead Making Day" chez moi. If anybody else makes these I'd appreciate any input. Most of the older tutorials say use flour but I'm using a blend of flour and cornstarch...once they've dried they'll be buffed with a fine nail buffer to polish and then rubbed in a little bit of EO to match.

Anything else I should try or is it really that simple? I did manage to find Katie, an Etsy artisan(of course where else) creating gorgeous herb bead jewelry for inspiration - give her a look at Black Star's Shop. When I grow up I want to make beads like hers. Please email me or comment here and don't be afraid to pipe up and leave your two cents!

Get Your Kicks....

Benld Adopt-A-Pet will be at the

"Cruisin' Route 66" festival in Litchfield on

Friday, June 26 & Saturday, June 27th.

Visit their booth while you attend the bands,

foods, contests and of course... the great cars!

They will have lots of great "Rt. 66" and cat

and dog themed items for sale, in addition to

a raffle or two! All the proceeds benefit the shelter.

Click here for more info.