How to make simple antler beads

Simple antlers beads are easy to make and can be used for primitive
and mountain man style jewelry and accessories.

Tools needed:

A fine toothed saw, a coping saw will work just fine.

A drill, an electric drill is ideal but an old fashioned hand drill
will work.

Drill bits, Depending on what you plan to string the beads on,
1/16" to 1/8" are the best sizes.

A belt sander, This will make rounding the ends of the beads go
faster but if you don't have one, you can use a variety of sand
papers and a bit of patience.

A power buffer, If you want to polish the beads to a high shine one
of these is ideal but if you don't have one you can use fine steel
wool.

A sturdy table vise, You will need on to hold the antler while
cutting and drilling the beads. If need be you can clamp the antler
to a sturdy table top with C clamps but make sure the antler is
locked down before you start working.


The first step is to clamp your antler into your vise, it is
advisable to pad the vise with some soft non-marring material like
a piece of suede or rubber inserts. You will want to decide how
long the beads will be before you begin so you can maintain a
consistent size. Anywhere from 1/2" to no more than 1-1/2" in
length should be about right for most beads. You may want to
use a Sharpie to mark off your beads so you have a visual
reference.

After you have cut as many beads as you want you will now be ready
to drill them for stringing. With antler beads you have quite a few
options for how to string them. Most commonly you will probably
want a hole drilled through the longest part of the bead but you
can also drill a hole through one end if you want the bead to
dangle. Just take you time and decide what you want to do with
them. Pad your vise as you did for cutting the beads to avoid
marring the surface of the antler and mount your bead so it is at
a comfortable angle for drilling. Try to drill your holes as close
to the center as possible.


An inch and a half is about as long as you will want to make a dangling bead.


A smaller dangling bead about 3/4" long.

Now that you have drilled your beads you will want to sand the ends
where you cut them and the ends will likely be rough and in many
cases have sharp points that need to be removed for both looks and
the comfort of the person wearing the beads. This is where that
belt sander and sand paper will come in handy. Depending on your
personal tastes you can simply round the edges or you can round the
entire end of the bead.


Note the ends of this bead are flat with just the edges rounded


The ends of this bead are rounded off

Finally we get to the polishing, if you are using a power buffer I
would recommend using a soft loose cotton buffing wheel with Brown
Tripoli as your buffing compound as it is well suited for natural
materials like antler and wood. You won't need to use much pressure
on the antler but try to maintain a solid grip on the beads to
avoid the buff snatching the beads out of your fingers. The ends of
the beads will be where you will want to focus most of your
attention since you will want to maintain the antlers natural
appearance as much as possible. depending on want kind of look
you are going for you can either give them a light buffing to give
them a gentle shine or can polish them to a high glossy finish.

If you don't have a power buffer you can use fine steel wool to
buff the beads with as well. It will take a little longer but you
can achieve a very fine polish with steel wool. One thing you may
need to look for when using steel wool, some brands of steel wool
use a silicon coating to prevent the steel wool from rusting, this
will sometimes make what you are working on look a lot shiner that
it really is so you will need to wipe the beads with a soft cloth
to remove the silicon residue. You'll know when it has silicon on
it, you're fingers will get a light oily film on them.

Now you are ready to string them!

~Fin~

Making and using natural black dye

This is something I originally found at Primitive Ways.

Primitive Ways black dye link for reference.

Their's is a great source for the basic method of making this
natural black dye but I wanted to share my experience with
making and using it...

This will dye pretty much any natural material a very deep
black and from my experience with it sometimes will dye
certian synthetics like nylon temporarily.


We start out with the basic ingredients of the dye...

Iron salts solution

I made mine by using a what I had on hand to work with, in
this case, steel wool and a few rusty nails..





Just drop them into a large (clean) peanut butter jar.



Then I added 1 cup of white vinegar and 1/2 cup of lemon juice.



Opps, not quite enough...



So I added an additional cup of vinegar and an addition 1/2 cup of
lemon juice.



As you can see, the steel wool was still above the line of the
liquid but after twenty-four hours it had dissolved enough to allow
it to be pushed down using a chop stick.





Those fine particles in the liquid are partly from the steel wool
being dissolved and partly from where it had stripped the rust from
the nails.

Important note: This stuff is way nasty smelling Don't leave
it open longer than you need to.

Next we move on to the tannic acid solution...

Tannic Acid Solution

The name makes it sound like something you would find in a mad
scientist's laboratory but it just a simple solution, in this
case made from water and finely ground acorns.

I started out with 25 acorns..



Then dropped them into an electric coffee grinder.



Now this is where I should add a note that might or might not make a
difference. The article at Primitive Ways says to husk (shell) the
acorns. The first batch I made last year I did this but I wanted to
see if it would make any difference in how the dye worked so this time
I just ground them shells and all.

And here we have a finely ground acorn powder.


And then dump it into another large peanut butter jar.



While it was never stated in their article, I decided to treat it the
same way I would if I was making tea to antique something and used
two cups of very hot water, not boiling just hot enough to steam.


Looks nasty doesn't it? Actually it had a surprisingly pleasant
sweet nutty smell. (No, I didn't taste it! :P )

After twenty-four hours this was the final solution.





Ok, So now what?

Now we test it to see if it will work as expected.

We start out with one deer antler bead I had made a few days before.


I suspended the bead from a length of nylon twine in the tannic acid
solution.


After twenty-four hours of soaking.


The drop it into the iron salts for twenty-four hours.


Doesn't look too black yet does it?


So it went back into the tannic acid for another twenty-four hours.


Voila! One black dyed bead.


I'll admit that I had briefly considered dropping back into the iron
salts for another day but it occurred to me, How black can you make
anything?? lol

So next I let it hang for a good day before checking it again.
After which I gave it a gently buff with extra fine steel wool
to bring it's shine back and this is the end result.



As a few final notes, the dye can be reused quite a few times
before it loses it's potency and it can be freshened up by
adding a little more acorn powder in the tannic acid and
a little more vinegar and steel wool in the iron salts.

However, I would suggest dumping it after six to nine months
and making a fresh batch. The tannic acid will grow mold but
that can be removed easily with a fork and disposed of.


~Fin~

Bead making experiments

This is something I originally posted in the
forum and decided to transfer a copy of it here.

This first set of pics is from my experimenting with "antiqueing" using strong tea as a dying agent...

A bead made of deer antler...









Two antler tips that have been similarly "antiqued"...









and these three pics are of unstained beads and tips for reference..

---

Now this piece is part of a new experiment. I have talked
about trying tolearn a little about scrimshaw in the past
and this is the begining of a very rudimentary kind of scrim.





This is just a polished section of deer antler but as time permits I am going to do some simple filework on it and then soak it in my black solutions to try to etch the filework.

---

Originally I had planned to dye it black but changed
my mind at the last minute and dropped into the same cup of
tea I used to "antique" the bead and tips above.

---

Here is the first bit of it...





Nothing fancy just some lines filed into the piece...

After which I decided to antique the grooves so they would stand out better...








And now we come to what I did Sunday afternoon...



These I plan to use a little of my black dye compound to bring them up a bit, I'll post a pic after I get the divets dyed.

This is an ongoing experiment so I will post updates as
I make more progress.