How to make a Rosary

A rosary is a very personal gift and when made by hand will remain a most treasured item.

Materials

• 53 Hail Mary beads
• 6 Our Father beads
• 1 Rosary centre
• 1 Crucifix
  A combination of the following
• plain chain links
• wire
• eye pins
• jump rings

Tools

• Round nose pliers
• Chain nose pliers and/or
• Bent nose pliers
• Cutters
• Safety glasses

NOTE: There are no rules as to what beads to use,  Our Father and Hail Mary beads can be identical, different sizes or even different shapes as here. It is the spacing with chain that will distinguish the two bead types.

Tips:

I like to work with wire and so in this project I did not use eye pins, you though may prefer the quicker method of forming beaded chain links with eye pins and can calculate the number and size of eye pins by the amount and style of beads you are using. You may also prefer to do wrapped loops rather than Rosary loops.

I used sterling silver and gold filled 20 gauge wire for my Rosaries but you could use any good quality craft wire to keep costs down or increase your colour options.

Pop the spacer bead then one rosary beads on your wire and slide them down the wire a little then make a loop with round nose pliers. As you can see the loop isn’t too flash here as it is all bent over to one side, but all you need do now is take your round nose pliers with one point in the loop and the other where the arrow is pointing on the outside you can bend your loop back a little and hey presto, now it looks like an eye pin end.

What we see at the right is an illustration of the steps to making one bead chain link. You have either done our first step just mentioned above using the wire or have used an eye pin. Now cut flush with the bottom of the 8 mm measuring bead leaving just under a 1 cm length. I like to use my fingers to bend the wire to a right angle, if you use pliers you will have a little more movement for your bead, . Using the same area of your round nose for uniform loops bend the wire back into a simple rosary loop, see our tutorials for instructions on this if you are unsure.

Don’t worry if some of your loops get a little out of shape, once you have turned the loop fully over you can reposition your round nose pliers and adjust your loop, you can also straighten loops up and turn them at right angles to each other using a couple of chain nose pliers, holding one steady while manoeuvring the other.

Tip: be careful when bending wire with crystal and glass beads especially with flat tops as they can fracture easily.

As my beads are coloured I laid them out to ensure the best possible combination. Now you are ready to finish off all the loops. It is easier to complete all your loops and then put your rosary together opening only the ones you need, to connect the bead chains.

Don’t forget to open your loops side ways like a jump ring so you don’t distort your loop. For your decade chain links be sure the loops are at right angles to each other so the chain will sit nicely.

When using a Rosary the spaces are also used for prayer, to make this easier we have added some plain ready made chain links on either side of the Our Father beads, on the Crucifix and the Rosary Centre. You can connect them directly or if you have a closed loop like on our Crucifix use jump rings. You can also use two or three jump rings and make your own chain.

Congratulations you now have your completed Rosary, we hope it will bring someone you love as much joy as ours have done..