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by: Susan Gast / Author, Blogger at Beesville Books, Bored Boomers, and a Food Dehydrating Fanatic!

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

Prior to her necklace-making 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.

Gorgeous Necklace By Janetta

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

BTW: 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.

Janetta Laments: "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), as 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

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!

 Pretty Dehydrated Potato-Beaded Necklace!

To add decoration and spacing between the turquoise dried spuds, she strung silver beads between the pieces and used nylon jewelry cord. She said the nylon cord was stiff enough that she didn't need to use a needle to thread the cord through the potato holes.

While Janetta fully intended to make one strand long enough to drop over her head, the strings were too short this time around. Lesson: Make sure your nylon cord is long enough before stringing!

"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.

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 about making dehydrated food gifts. It's complete with ideas on baskets, cellophane, ribbons, and more!

It's a great way to share your dehydrated goodies.

Don't forget to get your free "Six Simple Steps" eBook where I share how to dehydrate food safely!

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