Growing up Catholic, I always loved rosaries. Later in life, becoming a jewelry designer, it only made sense that I would want to make them. Even though rosaries are not jewelry, but rather a tool to aid in prayer, I have always loved the beauty of them. They can take some time to make from scratch, but luckily we offer beaded chain that makes creating a beautiful rosary easy. So check out the instructions below to see how to create this pretty rosary.
How to make a Rosary with Beaded Chain
If you prefer to create a rosary the traditional way, see our Aventurine Rosary Tutorial that uses the 1-Step Looper. For a quick and easy short-cut to creating beautiful rosaries, continue below for how to make a rosary with pre-beaded chain.
Rosary with sterling silver crucifix.
Supplies needed for this project:
- sterling silver crucifix
- sterling silver rosary center
- gunmetal eye pins
- gunmetal jump rings
- gunmetal and crystal beaded chain (sorry, the pre-beaded chain is no longer available)
- 10mm faceted crystal rondelle beads
Tools to make this Rosary:
- Basic tool kit
- Novacan Black
- steel wool or polishing pads
Everything you need to make a beautiful rosary.
Dunk the sterling silver pieces into the Novacan Black solution. Allow them to blacken. Remove the silver from solution. Rinse them off.
Now that the pieces are antiqued, they match the gunmetal finish of the beaded chain.
Use steel wool to rub off the surface of the patina. This will make the details really pop on the sterling silver pieces.
Place the 10mm crystal rondelles on the eyepins.
Clip the eyepins with your wire cutters about 8mm above each bead.
Make a loop at the top of each bead with your round nose pliers that matches the loop on the other side. You will now have 6 faceted rondelle links that you’ll use to attach your chain segments together.
Cut the beaded chain into 5 segments that have 10 beads each, plus one segment with 3 beads.
Attach 1 faceted rondelle link to the crucifix with a gunmetal jump ring.
Attach the 3-bead chain section to the top of that with another gunmetal jump ring.
Attach this to the bottom of the center rosary connector with a gunmetal jump ring. On each side of the rosary center, attach a 10-bead segment with another gunmetal jump ring.
To finish building the rosary, add a 10-bead segment of beaded chain, then a 10mm crystal rondelle bead link. Continue until you use all the parts and connect everything in the back to make one long loop.
Completed rosary.
I hope you enjoyed this rosary tutorial! The beaded chain really makes this project very quick and easy. Check out this other rosary tutorial below if you want to make the links yourself! ~Tiffany
Aventurine Rosary Tutorial by Rita Hutchinson
3 Comments
BEAUTIFUL!
New to jewelry/rosary making and need help especially with “mm” sizes.
Trying to figure out how to pair bead size to cap size to chain size to jump ring size to split ring size, etc..
example: If my bead is 6/7mm, (roughly) what size bead caps, chain, jump/split rings should be used?
Thank you!
Hi Charlie,
Most bead caps list the size of bead(s) that they work best with. If they don’t, then it should be fairly safe to get a bead cap that is 1-2mm smaller than the bead, so a 5mm bead cap should work with 6-7mm beads. A 3-4mm bead cap will sit like a little hat on the bead. A larger bead cap, say 8mm, will hang over the edge of the bead and can catch on things — it will also be uncomfortable to the fingers if you are running them along the strand and counting like you commonly do with a rosary.
Regarding the rest – you need durable jump rings (or split rings), so make sure they are not too small. 5-7mm is usually fine. You could get a mixed bag of jump rings (http://www.rings-things.com/Products/Jump-Ring-Color-Assortments/) in your chosen color, and you’ll have lots of options. If you don’t already have a measuring gauge (http://www.rings-things.com/Products/Calipers-and-Gauges/) then pick one up so you can measure your favorite sizes, making them easy to re-order.
Size of chain is greatly a matter of opinion rather than a rule. You could use anything from 2mm to 4mm and it would look good. Many people prefer the price and look of the very fine chain, 2mm or less, but keep in mind that the finer the chain, the more difficult it is to work with (fitting a jump ring into tiny chain links).
Here are some nice specialty pliers for making beaded eye pin loops, if you are making all your beaded links by hand: http://www.rings-things.com/Products/Wire-Wrapping-and-Looping-Pliers/
And a handy technique sheet for making beaded loops: http://www.rings-things.com/Products/Stringing-Books/Form-Technique-Jewelry-Basics.html (you can download / print it for free).
Here is also a page with easy conversions from inches to millimeters and vice versa: http://www.rings-things.com/Learn/Inch-mm/
I hope this helps!
–Polly
Thank you Polly for your quick response and help!