Yes, potato beads! Potatoes, parsnips, turnips, sweet
potatoes, carrots... All can be dried to make
"beads" (and other odd shapes), that can be left
their differing natural colors or painted. Cut chunks,
rounds, strips... string them on waxed dental floss and let
them dry (um... try mint- or cinnamon-flavored floss?). Try
fluting the edges with nips from a knife, or painting them
with food coloring while they’re still wet. Cross-sections
might have interesting "pictures" inside them. As
they dry, the edges wrinkle, and the shapes take on a life
of their own.
...A 24-carrot necklace?
