Janetta's Dehydrated
Potato-Beaded Necklace

Dehydrated potato-beaded necklace

Check out this lovely dehydrated potato-beaded necklace! A lovely lady named Janetta wished to share her potato beaded necklace with me, and I'm so happy she did.

Prior to her success, she needed to know how to dehydrate potatoes for stringing into a necklace so she dropped me an email.

Well, to be honest, I didn't know a thing about it, so Janetta promised to try her hand with the necklaces on her own.

Necklace By Janetta

I'd say she was very successful; she sent in these lovely pictures of her dehydrated potato-beaded necklace to prove it!

(Here's how to dehydrate potatoes to eat! Plus see the video near the bottom of this page).

NOTE: She doesn't currently have a dehydrator. So she did the next best thing.

She used her regular oven, set at 170°F for two hours. She then left the potatoes in the oven until the next day.




"They Turned Out Like Rocks!"

Janetta says "They turned out like rocks but I guess that isn't bad!" She also noted that she should have cut the potatoes into larger pieces (even though she did consider shrinkage), they did dry too small, in her opinion.

Janetta also thinks that the beads were too small and some got lost in the potato indentations!

Still, it was her first try and she and her friends were pleased with the effort.

Even Lovelier... the Second Time Around

Dehydrated potato-beaded necklace

Fast forward to March 12, 2013, and Janetta sent two more lovely photos of her beads.

This batch of beads dried at 200°F for three hours and was made from three large potatoes. Janetta had the bright idea of using a skewer to make the holes!

Use a Skewer to Make Holes

"They are like rocks and hard to force holes after they are baked," says Janetta, and she reminds us to make sure the holes are big before dehydrating.

I asked her what she painted them with. "I painted them with turquoise acrylic paint and I intend to put some kind of sealer on them."

 Pretty Dehydrated Potato-Beaded Necklace!

Dehydrated potato-beaded necklace

To add decoration and spacing between the turquoise spuds(!) she strung them with silver beads on nylon jewelry cord. She said the nylon cord was stiff enough that she didn't need to use a needle.

While Janetta fully intended to make one strand long enough to drop over her head, the strings were too short this time around.

"This was a two-day process," says Janetta. "I could have put two beads in between each potato but didn't think of it at the time. It took a long time to paint them!" she added.

Thank you, Janetta, for sharing your dehydrated potato and bead necklaces with us all!

Here's more inspiration for potato bead necklaces.

www.easy-food-dehydrating.com
Copyright© March 2013




And here is a quick video on how to dehydrate potatoes!

More Ideas for Using Dehydrated Food as Jewelry

Here are some other good vegetable options besides potatoes for dehydrating and making into jewelry - like necklaces or earrings:

  • Sweet potatoes - Slice thinly and dehydrate into chips before stringing onto a cord for necklaces or attaching to earring hooks.
  • Carrots - Grate or thinly slice carrots, dehydrate completely and use the flat discs or chips for decorative jewelry.
  • Beets - Thinly slice beets into rounds, dehydrate until crisp and use the resulting rounds to make red jewel-toned necklaces and earrings.
  • *Garlic - Dehydrate whole garlic cloves and then string them onto the cord for pungent garlic necklaces.
  • Onions - Cut onions into very thin disks, dehydrate them and use the onion slices to make interesting patterned jewelry pieces.
  • Peppers - Slice bell peppers into strips or rings, dehydrate them and use as a colorful component for assembled jewelry.
  • Tomatoes - Slice tomatoes thinly, dehydrate, and incorporate the bright red dried tomato pieces into jewelry.
  • Zucchini - Shave zucchini into thin ribbons, dehydrate completely, and assemble into necklaces. The thin green "noodles" work well for woven-style designs.

So get creative with your veggie dehydrating and drying and make some funky handmade jewelry!

*Garlic necklaces may not appeal to everyone due to their potential strong aroma! Here are a few reasons why some people may enjoy garlic jewelry:

  • Novelty or humor - Garlic necklaces and earrings could be given as silly gifts or worn to be funny/get attention. The strong scent adds to the humor.
  • Natural insect repellent - Some believe strongly scented herbs like garlic can help deter insects when worn close to the body. A garlic necklace could act as a natural bug repellent.
  • Aromatherapy - In aromatherapy, garlic's scent is said to provide some benefits, so wearing it as jewelry could be considered therapeutic. However, many would find the scent overpowering.
  • Craft project - Dried garlic cloves can be a unique crafting material for jewelry. The appeal may simply be in the creation process itself.

So while garlic jewelry definitely won't suit everyone's tastes, the dried cloves themselves are interesting and aromatic enough that some may find wearing garlic oddly appealing!

But it's probably not going to be the next big jewelry trend unless the benefits outweigh the bold scent.

Check out "Making Dehydrated Food Gifts"

Before I go, I recently wrote a post on making dehydrated food gifts. It's complete with ideas on baskets, cellophane, ribbons, and more!


Easy Food Dehydrating and Safe Food Storage by Susan GastREAD MORE

20 Taste-Tested Easy Recipes eBookREAD MORE

How to Dehydrate Food ... Top 20 Topics ... over 225 Questions AnsweredREAD MORE

Make Nutritious Dog FoodREAD MORE

More Good Stuff to Read!


Susan Gast, owner of Easy Food Dehydrating plus ePubTechReviews.com, and SusanGast.com

Susan Gast began Easy Food Dehydrating in December 2010.

Read Susan's story of what sparked her interest in all things related to "food dehydrating."

She is featured on the Mother Earth News blog, and on Solo Build It! (SBI!) who hosts this site. Read her first SBI! interview and her second SBI! interview.

Since 1980, Susan's involvement in publishing - in one form or another - led her to create ePubTechReviews which reviews a variety of products related to the publishing industry - if you're at all interested in AI and self-publishing. The website is also hosted by Solo Build It!

Susan also runs her namesake site SusanGast.com on Solo Build It! that showcases the books she has written since 2012.

Do you want to send Susan a quick message? Visit her contact page here. She'd love to hear from you!