ROSE TRINKETS 101 



Rose-Beads 



For the following formula the author is indebted to a 

 good friend of his from New York State, whose experience in 

 making rose-beads is far more extensive than his own. 



"Gather the petals of roses — even newly fallen ones will 

 do — till you have, say, half a peck. Grind these through 

 a meat-chopper till they become pulp. In order to have the 

 beads jet-black when finished, place this pulp in an iron pan, 

 or, lacking that, mix in a teaspoonful of ground copperas (ferri 

 sulphas), and stir thoroughly; the mixture will soon become 

 brown. Set it now in the sun or a warm oven till it gets black. 

 After this, put all through the meat-chopper again till it 

 becomes like putty, and then form the beads. They can be 

 made any shape you like, — round, square, hexagonal, etc.,- — 

 but form them twice the size you wish to have them when 

 finished. Rolling them into little balls with the hand will 

 make smooth beads. If you wish them figured, the butt- 

 end of a steel writing-pen is a convenient tool, to be used, of 

 course, when the beads are still soft. When properly formed, 

 transfix them to a board with a pin, then keep them hot and 

 dry, and in two or three days they will become small and 

 hard, and may be strung through the hole left when the pin 

 is removed." 



A European authority gives us a slightly different formula, 

 and recommends using a mortar instead of the more prosaic 

 and modern meat-chopper. 



"Freshly gathered rose-petals are beaten into a pulp and 

 then dried, but before becoming completely dry, rose-water is 

 added and they are again beaten and dried, the operation 

 being repeated till the pulp has become very smooth. Then 

 the desired shape is given and they are perforated in order to 

 thread them, and so a kind of bead is formed, which is dried. 

 When they have become very hard, they are smoothed and 

 polished, after which they are rubbed with oil-of-roses in 

 order to give them more perfume and gloss. If a brass mortar 

 be used, the pulp takes a deep black color, through the action 

 on the metal of the gallic acid contained in the roses. On 



