I'd told someone that I had a recipe to make beads out of rose petals a few years back, but hadn't been able to find the recipe until yesterday. Hopefully whoever I'd told about the recipe will see this post and be able to try it for herself.
I do have a friend who tried a similar recipe and said the beads are a lovely, beautifully scented, matte black. And that if you spend the time to shape and finish the beads well, they do come out nicely. 
The copy of the recipe comes from the book, An Unthymely Death and other garden mysteries, By Susan Witting Albert which has not only charming and relatively lighthearted mysteries but also many recipes involving herbs, as the author is a fan of all things herbal.