Making Rosaries
You will need:
- 53 decade and Hail Mary beads
- 6 Our Father beads
- Connector beads
- 59 eye pins long enough to extend at least 3/8 inch beyond the different sizes of beads
- Wire-cutting tool
- Needle-nose pliers
- Flat-nose pliers
- Medal
- 1-4 jump rings
Make the Stem of the Rosary
1. Place all stem beads on eye pins. With a wire-cutting tool, cut eye pins to leave a 3/8-inch tail above the beads. Beginning with the first Our Father bead, bend the tail back against the bead to form a 90-degree angle.
2. With the needle-nose pliers, grasp the very tip of the tail of the eye pin at the place along the pliers where the circumference equals that of the other, looped end of the eye pin. Holding the bead with your free hand, rotate the pliers along the tail and toward the bead to form a circle that is the same size of the loop at the other end of the eye pin. Stop just before the circle is closed.
3. Slip the looped end of a second eye pin inside the circle you have just formed on the first eye pin. Use the flat-nose pliers to gently squeeze the circle of the first eye pin to capture the loop of the second eye pin. Trim any excess wire. Using both pairs of pliers, position the loop you have just made above the hole of the bead. Place the Hail Mary bead on the second eye pin, and continue steps 1 through 3, arranging the beads of the stem.
4. When all stem beads are connected, pick up a jump ring and grasp it with both the needle-nose pliers and the flat-nose pliers, holding one tool in each hand and placing the small split in the jump ring between the two pliers at the top of the jump ring. Open the jump ring by moving the tool in your right hand away from you at the same time you move tool in your left hand toward you. Do not pull the jump ring open, as this will weaken it. Place the bottom loop of the medal and the circle of the eye pin extending from the last bed of the stem on the jump ring. Close the jump ring by reversing the steps you made to open it.
Make the Path of the Rosary
1. Place all path beads on eye pins. With wire-cutting tool, cut the eye pins to leave a 3/8-inch tail above the beads.
2. Open another jump ring. Place a top hole of the medal and the loop of the eye pin for the first decade bead on the jump ring. Close the jump ring using the technique described avobe.
3. Place the first decade bead on the eye pin. Follow steps 1-3 for making the stem of the rosary to form a loop and attach the next eye pin and bead. Continue until all the beads of the path of the rosary have been connected. Make and close a loop on the eye pin of the last decade bead.
4. Open a jump ring. Place the last hole of the medal and the circle of the last bead on the path of the rosary onto the jump ring. Close the jump ring.