How to Make a Wood Bead Rosary

Making a rosary by hand may seem like a daunting task, but it is not as difficult as it seems. Choosing to craft a rosary yourself, either as a gift or for your own personal use is a way to connect to your faith and express your creativity at the same time.

Things You'll Need

• 53 wooden beads 8mm
• 6 wooden beads 10mm
• 53 eye pins size 15
• 6 eye pins size 18
• Crucifix or cross
• Center piece
• 3 oval jump rings (4 if your cross or crucifix does not have one)
• 1 chain 8"
• Round nose pliers
• Flat nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Felt mat
• 6 small Containers

Instructions

Making the Parts

1. Put your felt mat on your work table or flat surface. Separate your beads, eye pins, and jump rings into their own small container--you'll have one empty container left. Place your crucifix/cross and center piece within easy reach and your 8" chain in the center of your mat. Put your tools to either your right or left depending upon which hand you work with.

2. Cut your chain. With your wire cutters make fourteen 3 link sections by cutting and removing every 4th link. As you are cutting the links, place your free hand over the link as you cut to keep the pieces of the cut link from popping up or sailing off your work table.

3. Place the fourteen 3 link sections in the empty container.

4. Take one of the size 18 eye pins out of the container and one of your 10mm beads. With your non-dominate hand take your flat head pliers and grip the looped end of the eye pin. Be sure that you are not crushing the "eye" of the pin.

5. Thread the eye pin through the bead so that the bead rests snuggly against the end of the eye pin that has a loop already made in it.

6. Take your work hand and bend the other-straight-end of the eye pin 90 degrees where it protrudes from the bead and perpendicular to the loop on the other end. This means that if you are holding the looped end flat in the pliers in your non-dominate hand, you will make the 90 degree bend downwards towards your work surface.

7. Pick up your round nosed pliers with your work hand and gently grasp the straight end of the eye pin. Roll the pliers back towards the bead to form a loop, but do not completely close the circle. Keep in mind that the closer to the end of the round nosed pliers you grip the pin the smaller your loop will be; your aim is to make a loop that is as close in size to the pre-made" eye" of the pin as you can.

8. If you have completed this step correctly you will have two loops that are 90 degrees perpendicular to each other. Repeat this process for each remaining size 18 eye pin and 10mm bead.

9. Use the same procedure for the 53 size 15 eye pins and 8mm beads.

10. Divide the 8mm beads into five groups of 10, and one group of 3.

11. Attach each group of ten beads together by placing the preformed loop of one bead into the open loop--that you created--of another. With your round nosed pliers close the open loop. Repeat this until all ten beads are strung together. Each set of ten beads is called a "decade."

12. Repeat for the remaining four groups of 10 beads and the one group of 3 beads. Set these sections aside.

13. Take one of the 10mm beads and two of the 3 link chain sections. Connect one section of chain to the open loop end of the bead and then close the loop as above.

14. Then take the same bead and find where the ends of the preformed eye pin loop meet. With your non- dominant hand use the round nosed pliers to hold the loop just below where the ends meet. Take the flat nosed pliers with your work hand, grasp the loop on the other side and gently twist open--do not uncurl--the loop. Connect the second section of chain by slipping it into the now open circle. Re-close the loop.

15. Repeat the process for the five remaining 10mm beads. Each one of the beads is called an "Our Father" bead.

Assemble the Rosary

1. Take one of the two remaining 3 link chains from the container and, using the loop twisting method from above, fasten it to one end of one Decade.

2. At the other end of that first decade--again using the loop twisting technique--connect one chain attached to an Our Father.

3. Join the other chain connected to the Our Father to the next Decade.

4. Continue this process until all five Decades are connected; with each Decade separated by an Our Father. Connect the last 3 link chain section to the end of the last Decade.

   At this point you should have 2 unattached Our Father beads remaining.

5. Get your center piece and one of the jump rings. Twist open the jump ring and use it to join the loop on the right side of the center piece to the chain on one end of the string of Decades. Close the jump ring.

6. Use another jump ring to connect the left side of the center piece to the chain on the other end of the Decades.

7. Take the strand of three 8mm beads you made earlier and connect one Our Father to each end, carefully using the twist technique to open and close the loops.

8. Open the last jump ring and join the loop on the bottom of your center piece to the short sequence of beads you made in the previous step.

9. Take your crucifix or cross and open the jump ring attached to it. Use that ring to join the Crucifix or cross to the bottom chain of the short string of beads that you just connected to the center piece.

10. Go through and check that all of your loops are tightly closed.

Tips & Warnings

• Supplies for making Rosary Beads can be readily found both online and offline in wholesale and retail shops.

• When cutting chain the closer you put the link you are cutting to the pivot point of your wire cutters the less likely it is that your cut links will fly off your work surface.

• Before forming your eye pin loops, slide your round nosed pliers into the "eye" of the pin and note where on the pliers the ring stops. If, when you are forming your own loops, you grab the straight end of the pin as close to that spot on the pliers as possible you will form almost identical loops very easily.

• Wood beads can be found in all sizes. If the beads used here are too small for you to comfortably work with, you can change the size of the beads. Just make sure that you also change the size of the corresponding eye pins. Your bead supplier can help you find the correct sizes.

• Correctly forming loops in the eye pins is a skill that may require some practice. Purchasing additional beads and eye pins to train with is a good idea.

References

• Rosary Maker Guide
• Lewis and Company
• Rosary Parts and Tools

Resources

• How to Pray the Rosary
• Our Lady's Rosary Makers
• Rosary Making Forum