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Rosary Tutorial
Cindy "Sis" Perra |
 Making
a rosary is very easy to do; and hopefully, my instructions will
be just as easy for you to understand. You can use purchased beads
for the rosary or make your own. Most rosary beads are 6 mm
for women and 8 mm for men. I am using approximately 10 mm scrap
polymer beads for this demonstration. Generally, the cross
is a crucifix with the figure of Jesus on it. Okay, deep breath
(that's for me), let's begin... |
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Step One:
Insert an eye pin into each bead and bend the excess wire back toward the bead at approximately a 90 degree angle. This will hold the bead on the eye pin until you are ready to use it. It seems to take less time to make the rosary if you prepare the beads in an assembly line fashion. |
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Step Two:
Using the wire cutters, trim the excess wire of the eye pin to approximately 1/4" on each bead. If using the long eye pins, save the cut off scrap from one eye pin for the next step. |
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Step Three:
We begin assembling the rosary by attaching 5 jump rings to the crucifix. The first jump ring should be larger than all the rest of the jump rings that you use. This is where the scrap piece from a long eye pin comes in. Wrap the scrap piece of wire around the thickest part of the jewelry pliers to form a circle. Cut off the excess. |
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Step Four:
Attach the large jump ring to the crucifix followed by 4 of the regular size jump rings and 1 "Our Father" bead. Note: If you would like to use end caps on your rosary, they are usually added to the "Our Father" beads. Also, "Our Father" beads can be larger than the rest of the beads ("Hail Mary") or they can be a different shape than those used for the "Hail Mary" beads. You can see samples of this at the end of the tutorial. |
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Step Five:
Attach 4 jump rings to the "Our Father" bead followed by 3 "Hail Mary" beads. There will be no jump rings between the "Hail Mary" beads now and throughout the rosary. After each bead is added, it is important that the top and bottom "eye" of the pin is facing the same direction so the rosary will not be twisted. |
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Step Six:
Next, attach 4 jump rings, 1 "Our Father" bead and 5 jump rings. Now attach the bottom of the centerpiece to the last jump ring you put on. Be sure that the front of the centerpiece faces the same direction as the front of the crucifix. |
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Step Seven:
Attach 5 jump rings to the right side of the centerpiece followed by a "Hail Mary" bead. This bead represents the first bead in a decade. There are 10 "Hail Mary" beads in each decade, and 5 decades to the rosary. So add on another 9 "Hail Mary" beads giving you a total of 10 beads. Now attach 4 jump rings, 1 "Our Father' bead and 4 jump rings. |
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Step Eight:
Assembly will now be 10 "Hail Mary" beads, 4 jump rings, 1 "Our Father" bead, 4 jump rings, 10 "Hail Mary" beads, etc. Continue around ending with 10 "Hail Mary beads and 5 jump rings. Let your length of beads that you have already assembled hang down to remove any twisting, then attach the last jump ring to the left side of the centerpiece. You now have a beautiful rosary. See that wasn't so bad. The more rosaries that you make, the faster you will be |
 The
rosary on the left is one I made using end caps on the "Our Father"
beads. The rosary on the right was purchased in Mexico. The
"Hail Mary" beads are rectangular pieces of wood with wood circles used
as "Our Father" beads. |
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| ©Cindy "Sis" Perra | |