Beads, beads, beads

When does a little ball of clay become a bead? My answer is when someone uses a straw to make a hole through which to thread it. I make a lot of them. I find making beads salves the too busy mind, lets me be productive when I don’t feel particularly creative, and lets me play in the clay when we are on the road. Beads are small, round (thus durable), repetitive, yet fruitful. They use up clay that may be getting dry. With my long history of rolling cookie balls for our favorite molasses treats, clay balls also avoid a lot of calories. 

What does one do with clay beads? About an inch across, they might qualify as weapons of mass destruction if one were to wear them, although it has been done and smaller ones work well for necklaces and as weights for crocheted shawls. I put them in my windchimes, but the clever manager at Lost River Artisans’ Co-op, Doug Gronholm, uses eight of them to make sets of weights for picnic table cloths. I’ve used Doug’s weights many times and they are great. Like making windchimes, Kahoka beads are well worth rolling!