California Poppy

This collection celebrates California’s state flower, the California Poppy (also called the Golden Poppy, Eschscholzia californica). They bloom abundantly each spring outside my studio windows.

To make the beads, I pressed poppy leaves into polymer clay. Next, I cut leaf shapes and — to accentuate the leaf impressions — dusted the fern-green beads with gold powder. Photos at the bottom of this page show some of the steps in bead-making. Each leaf bead of each necklace, bracelet, and earring is unique!

When I first started making these leaf impression beads, I cut each one free-form. I now use cutters, so the leaf shapes are uniform. For the earrings labeled “minis,” each leaf bead is 1 and 3/4” long. The other earring beads (non-labeled) measure 2” long.