Thursday, July 12, 2012

Job's Tears

Several months ago a co-worker told me about a plant called Job's Tears.  He said that the plant has seeds that are hollow and can be used as beads, and promised to bring me some.  After forgetting them many times, he brought them this morning.  I love them!  These look similar to the ones he brought:



My co-worker told me to pull the middle out of the seed/bead and plant it to grow more.  I'm going to give it a shot, but I have a very black thumb!  Wish me luck--lots of it!

After doing some research, I found out that these beads are used a lot in religious jewelry, like rosaries.  I'm not Catholic, but I think rosaries are beautiful, so maybe I'll use the beads in a necklace with a cross pendant.  

The co-worker also told me the Cherokee Indians used these beads in jewelry a lot.  My great great grandmother was Cherokee, so I found this interesting.  I'm so excited to have something this unique to use in my designs!

No comments:

Post a Comment