Let’s make a Harvest Corn Necklace.

Mexican corn has always fascinated me… the colors are just amazing!!! Where I’m from, we only got the yellow kind… we called it mealies. The word, surprisingly comes from Portuguese… oh, what a melting pot South Africa is. One thing is sure, we really do LOVE our mealies for dinner!


One of Kitty’s friends lost her first tooth this time last year. Instead of leaving her money, the Tooth Fairy left her a beautiful necklace made from Mexican corn. When Kitty saw an ear of Mexican corn in the market the other day, she immediately asked if we could make her a necklace just like the Tooth Fairy left for Fin. ‘Of course’, I said.

When we got home, we shucked the corn (I’ve always wanted to say that!)


We covered the corn kernels with water and soaked them for a couple of days to soften them.


When they were nice and soft, we rinsed and dried them.

We threaded a medium sized needle with embroidery thread. Kitty threaded most of her necklace herself. She chose a brightly colored corn kernel, laid it on the wooden cutting board and pierced the needle through it until it hit the board.


Then she turned the needle upwards and pushed the corn all the way through, being careful not to prick her fingers.


The corn kernels are still quite tough, so care with the needle has to be taken and this method seemed the safest for her.


It was painstaking work and I was proud of her for sticking with it. With each new colored corn kernel, her necklace grew more and more beautiful.

When she had threaded it long enough, we tied the two ends together and Voila! Kitty has worn it all day… I think she thinks she’ll grow up to be a Tooth Fairy :-)


As we worked with the corn, we talked about how each little kernel is a seed. That if we planted it and watered it, it would grow into a great big corn plant. We talked about how we cook corn, the different things we can do with corn. We talked about how people can grind the corn kernels into corn flour and make corn bread and corn tortillas. I told her all about the sweet yellow corn we got as kids in South Africa and how we called it ‘mealies’. After saying the word a few times, we agreed that it did sound like a funny name for corn. We laughed.

Every day with our children is a gift.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

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17 Responses

  1. We called this Indian corn when I was little. I grew up in Ohio. (USA)

    This is such a cute idea. My daughter just turned six and loves to make stuff. Thanks for the idea.

    Have a blessed day.

  2. We saw stacks of these this weekend at a Fall Festival & thought they were beautiful. What a wonderful way to celebrate the season. I’ll have to share this idea with my readers. Thank you!

  3. Your description of all the seeds reminds me of the saying, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but no one can count the apples in a seed.”

    She did a beautiful job. I think I might have given up or at the very least made it more of a choker length necklace.

  4. We use tweezers to separate the corn from the cob and then the children put it in the bird (squirrel, let’s face the truth) feeder. This is another fun use for the corn. Thank you!

  5. The results are amazing, but this looks so difficult! I like Indian Corn too, and we learned a lot about it recently because my child is learning about the pilgrims and the Native People at school. We ground some parched corn. It was fun. love, Beth

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