posts

Ash Memory Beads

I’ve spent the past few weeks working on the ash versions of these memory beads. This is another new material to get to know, so it has taken some experimenting.

These are from my original rondelle mold. They will be finished with a stainless steel grommet in the hole.
Before demolding the beads – ball beads on top, rondelles on the bottom.
Original rondelle without the grommet
Original rondelle with grommet.
Original rondelle with grommet, on silk necklace.
This is my new rondelle mold. These look great, even without the grommet, and also the center hole is slightly larger than my original rondelle mold. Unfortunately, this mold isn’t as sturdy as my others and one of the molds tore a bit when I was demolding these.
New rondelle.
All the new rondelles demolded.
Ball beads – I tried layering these with clear resin, letting it cure, then adding the ash infused resin on top. Overall, I think the full bead is a better effect, so I don’t plan on layering like this again.
All the ball beads demolded.
Ball beads – varying layers
Ball beads – varying layers.

Something for my sister

My sister has been hanging on to this hair from a friend’s horse for a while now, so I’m trying to make some memory beads with it for her. 🙂

Precious!
The center bead has less hair than the other two.

 

My workspace gets pretty messy

 

Trying out some glitter in the bottom center mold, though I’m pretty sure it will sink to the bottom (I likely will need to pour beads like this in layers). This is a new mold that appears to have a faceted look that I wasn’t expecting. Guess I will soon see how it turns out!

 

I think I like the look of just two or three hairs in a bead rather than a larger amount, but this hair is a light cream color with just a few darker strands, and I thought it might not show up as well as darker colors, so I tried to make a variety.

Memory Bead Projects

I’m getting more comfortable making the horsehair memory beads and even got some new molds. So far my favorite beads are the large ball and the large rondelle. I decided to see what I can make with the memory beads that would be a nice keepsake. The keychains and necklace only work with the large hole rondelle beads; the keepsake clips / keychain charms work with the regular round beads. Which ones do you like? (scroll down & click on the thumbnail image to enlarge the gallery images)

I made a selection of clear beads and a few with horse hair. The green beads with the flowers were purchased.

Just a snapshot to give you an idea of relative sizes
Top bead is large round, the other three are the large rondelles. The clear bead at the bottom is to show what the rondelles look like without the metal ring in the center hole.
Closeup of the necklace with accent beads
One bead necklace

Prices are on my “Available” page. I’m working on adding colors to my plain accent beads so there are some more colorful options to choose from. I’m also thinking that these projects are straying pretty far from my intent for this website, so I’m in the process of moving them to their own domain / website – stay tuned for that!

Memory Beads!

I’m still waiting for the last layer of resin to cure on the larger round horsehair memory keepsakes I started the other day, but I was able to pop out the ones I made with the new bead mold this afternoon. I am really happy with the results!

First four “test” beads

Two of the four “test” beads came out nice enough to use in a small memory keepsake strung on some hemp twine. The keepsake could be connected to a clip and attached to a bag or a bridle, or used as a key ring. It seems that less hair is actually better for the outcome in general, as the beads are pretty small.

This keepsake measures 4″ total in length, from top of hemp loop to the end of the hemp tail

One of the test beads had a crooked hole (expected as I could see when it was curing that the horsehair was pushing it out of position) and one has some hair protruding from the side of the bead, so those two couldn’t be used (at least not without some inventive modifications). Overall very pleased for a first try!

Still trying to figure out the hair

So I’m revisiting the memory keepsakes with horse hair (I think it’s actually from a tail). This time I’ve sealed the hair with resin spray and, another twist, I bought a new mold for beads to try. I decided to approach the beads from a variety of angles – first just using a single hair and poking it into the bead mold with no real form, then wrapping the hair around various cylindrical objects and using the resin spray to sort of cajole it into a ring shape before putting it into the bead mold. I was hoping for really well formed rings, but the hair had other ideas. Still I am optimistic.

Prepping everything before I pour the resin
Cajoling the hair into ring shapes with resin spray
Some of the hair in the new bead mold
Here goes nothing! Resin is poured and I placed the hair into the large molds on top of it. The beads are the opposite – hair goes in first, then resin (this will likely be revised as this is my first attempt with the beads). I think the center / left bead will be crooked because the hair is pushing the part of the mold that forms the hole in the bead – strong hair!!
I decided to use some glass nuggets to decorate a couple of these – we’ll see how it looks!

I’m letting all of this cure before I add a final layer to the coaster molds, hopefully tomorrow.

Needs more work

My first few attempts at horsehair memory keepsakes have been an exercise in learning. I have come to the conclusion that I really need to try to seal the hair before I pour the resin. I ordered some resin spray – will make another attempt as soon as it arrives!

Top left = 1st attempt, bottom center = 2nd attempt, top right = 3rd attempt

Trying something new

A friend of my sister’s asked me to see if I could make a memorial keepsake for a beloved horse who had passed away. Today I’m trying to develop my horsetail technique!

It is more of a challenge than I anticipated. The hair gets “messy” after I pour the resin, then tries to float up out of it. I can see I will need to do some things to contain the hair. I tried spraying with gloss acrylic and rolling it, but that wasn’t enough.

Currently, I have some more hair rolled, sprayed and glued together that I will try pouring a little later. I also think I need to pour the resin in at least three layers: 1) a thin base layer 2) a thin layer to hold it down, then 3) a final finishing layer. Normally everything I use sinks in the resin (even glitter) so this was an unexpected twist.
We’ll see how these turn out. Either way, I’m learning a lot.