If you’re interested in making your very own Anglican Rosary and/or making mission rosaries for your local parish or even the American troops, it is actually a rather simple, inexpensive, and satisfying hobby.  You could even begin making Anglican Rosaries for sale. 

The materials required for making Anglican Rosaries are easily obtained at your local crafts store, department store (such as Wal-Mart), or on-line.  A few excellent on-line suppliers for beads and rosary-making materials are as follows:

FireMountain Gems

The Rosary Shop

White Street Bead Company

Lewis & Company

The easiest method for making an Anglican Rosary is using the “flexwire” method, which does not require that you learn how to make special knots or how to cut and bend metal chains, eye-pins, and other findings traditionally used in rosary making, and the flexwire process will be the one described on this page.  Please note that flexwire rosaries can endure some abuse, but the process described here will produce rosaries that aren’t designed to be industrial-strength.  Therefore, we don’t recommend that you give rosaries produced by the directions provided here to young children for a number of reasons.

You’ll need the following tools and materials in order to make one Anglican Rosary. 

Materials:

A Crimping Tool (used for closing crimp beads, and looks like a special pair of pliers)

A Flush-Cut Tool or Scissors

2 Crimp Beads

1 Package of “E” Beads (these are used for spacers)

18 inches of flexwire (use at least the .019” diameter wire)

28 Smaller Beads (try to use at least 8 millimeter beads)

5 Larger Beads (try to use at least 10 millimeter beads)

A Cross or Crucifix (one that has a hole or a bail at the top)  As an alternative, you could use a religious medal, such as one of the Service Crosses for military rosaries.

A note about the Crimping Tool:  The Crimping Tool has two notches on it, and you’ll be using both notches in order to close the crimp bead.  The notch closest to the bolt on the tool (called the First Notch) appears to be oval with an indentation in the center.  The notch closest to the tip of the tool (called the Second Notch) is more circular, and it is used to bend the crimp bead so that its sides fold around the wire at the indentation from the First Notch, thus securing the loop of the wire. 

Directions:

Step 1:  Arrange the 28 smaller beads into 4 rows or groups of 7.  These will be used for the Weeks.  Place the 5 larger beads to the side. 

Step 2:  Take the spool of flexwire and unroll approximately 18 to 20 inches of wire and then cut it.  When you first start making rosaries, it’s best to have too much wire than too little.  The more experienced you become, the better you’ll be able to judge how much wire is required. 

Step 3:  Take your cross into one hand, and then feed one end of the wire through its hole or bail.  Form a small, tight loop, but don’t tie it off.  You’ll be using a crimp bead to fasten it.  Leave about ½ inch of wire above the cross.

Step 4:  Take one of the crimp beads, slide it over the free end of the wire, and then pull it down to the end of the cross.  Make sure that you slide the crimp bead down over the ½ inch of the wire tip at the cross.

Step 5:  Take the Crimping Tool, and gently (but firmly) position the First Notch over the crimp bead and squeeze the handles.  If you squeeze too hard, you might flatten the crimp bead, and that can ruin the whole project.  Then move the tool over the indented crimp bead to the Second Notch.  The crimp bead should be held in a horizontal position while the tool is in a vertical position.  The reason for this is because you want to fold the bead so that it is secured to the wire.  Squeeze the handles firmly, and then pull the wire and the cross gently to see if you’ve made a secure crimp.

Step 6:  Take one of the larger beads and thread it onto the wire, moving it so that it is covering the remaining ½ inch of wire at the end.  This is the Invitatory Bead.

Step 7:  Take three of the “E” beads and thread them onto the wire, moving them down to meet the larger Invitatory Bead.

Step 8:  Thread the second crimp bead onto the wire and slide it down so that it meets the three spacer beads.

Step 9:  Thread another larger bead onto the wire and slide it down so that it meets the crimp bead.  This will be the first Cruciform Bead.

Step 10:  Thread three more “E” beads to separate the Week beads from the Cruciform Bead.

Step 11:  Thread the first of the smaller Week beads onto the wire, followed by an “E” bead.  You will need to have one spacer bead between each Week bead.  Repeat the process for the next 6 beads.

Step 12:  After the 7^th Week bead, add three more spacer beads, then another Cruciform bead, followed by three more spacer beads.  Essentially you will have three spacer beads between the beginning and the end of each Week.  Repeat the process for the remaining Weeks.

Step 13:  At the last Week bead, thread three spacer beads.  The actual beading for your Anglican Rosary is complete at this point.  You may wish to take a few moments to check that you have used the correct number of beads, and that everything appears to be consistent and uniform before you make the final crimp.

Step 14:  Take the free end of the wire and thread it through the top of the first Cruciform Bead you added, moving it through the bead and also through the crimp bead and three spacer beads beneath it. 

Step 15:  Pull the wire through the beads so that it is sufficiently taut, but not so taut that the beads seem to be rigid.  Don’t be afraid to take some time to experiment to see how flexible you would like for your rosary to be.  Leave a little space between the final crimp bead and the first Cruciform Bead.

Step 16:  Take the Crimping Tool and crimp the bead as in Step 5.  Again, do not use too much force in crimping the bead, or you’ll easily damage it and it’ll be useless.  Once you’ve made the crimp, pull on the rosary a little bit to make sure that everything is secure.  However, don’t exert extreme tension on the rosary because it isn’t designed to be heavy-duty; the wire will probably hold up, but if you really pull hard on the rosary, the crimp beads may fail.

Step 17:  Now you’re in the home-stretch.  All you need to do now is use the scissors or the flush-cutter (which is recommended if you’re going to be making rosaries on a regular basis), and cut off the extra wire.  That’s it.  You’re done.

Food for Thought…

Once you’ve made approximately 10 to 15 rosaries, your technique will have developed to the point where you can probably make a rosary in 5 minutes without too much mental effort.  When you’ve reached that stage, then you can focus on paying while you make rosaries, and thus the process of creating them becomes a spiritual experience – and it really does infuse your creations with spiritual energy. 

Here are a few recommendations for you to consider for your future Anglican Rosary projects:

Use Large, Unusual Cruciform Beads:  Unlike other rosary forms, the Anglican Rosary lends itself to almost unlimited amounts of creativity; as long as you use the established number and arrangement of the beads and cross, it’s an Anglican Rosary.  So there’s no heavenly mandate about what style of beads you should use, and when it comes to the Cruciform Beads, the more unique they are, the better the final product will look.  Consider using animal shapes (some Anglican Rosaries for children actually have a Noah’s Ark theme), flower shapes, ethnic designs (Asian and African beads look amazing), or whatever you feel might be appropriate and meaningful.  Let yourself be inspired whenever you’re looking for beads.

Use Color Symbolism:  Christianity, just like most other ancient world religions, has symbolism attached to various colors – an example of this being the liturgical color sequence we see throughout the Church Year.

Week Beads Don’t Need to be Somber:  When many people think about rosaries, usually there’s a cultural image of beads fashioned of dark colored woods (think of the ones worn by old-fashioned nuns).  Of course you can use dark beads in your rosary designs, but you don’t have to.  Thank God for the Internet, because now a nearly infinite variety of colors and materials are available with ease (and usually pretty reasonably priced).  However, plastic beads usually feel and look bad (and they’re not that great for the environment, either), so you may wish to avoid those.  Wood, stone, bone, metal, and glass beads just seem to be more appropriate for rosary-making endeavors.  You can also use fragrant wood beads, like sandalwood and cedar, which add another dimension to one’s prayer experience.

Incorporate personal materials into your design:  You don’t always need to use purchased materials in creating Anglican Rosaries, for there may be items in your own home (or in the homes of those who want you to make a rosary for them) that can be used.  For example, there might be a special cross/crucifix that has tremendous sentimental value, or beads from an old or broken necklace of a loved one.  Consider using charms from an old charm bracelet as the Cruciform beads, or affixing them to the rosary in a creative way.  Now you can find a way to use your old Baptism/First Communion/Confirmation jewelry!

Wearing Your Anglican Rosary:  Using the instructions above will produce a solid, small-sized rosary for daily use, but it’s not recommended that you attempt to wear it (such as around your wrist).  It is relatively easy to make what is known as a “Rosary Necklace”, and to do so would require you to adjust the directions in the following way:

Use ultra-strong flexwire.  It is recommended that you use 49-strand, .024” diameter wire, which will be more expensive.  Using sterling silver flexwire wouldn’t be a bad idea, either.

Use much larger Cruciform and Week Beads.  You may wish to use 12 millimeter Cruciform beads and at least 10 millimeter Week beads; it is possible to acquire even larger beads. 

Use larger spacer beads, and more of them.  Spacer beads about 4 millimeters in size would work very well.  Instead of using three spacer beads to separate the Cruciform beads from the Week beads, use 6 or more, and perhaps even use two spacer beads between each Week bead.

Use more crimp beads.  4 crimp beads per rosary necklace should be sufficient.  For a rosary necklace, you might wish to look into using sterling silver crimp beads.  After all, you do want it to look good.

Use Gemstones in Your Creations:  Using actual semiprecious gemstones in the construction of an Anglican Rosary isn’t as expensive as you might think, especially if you purchase the gemstones in bulk from one of the on-line suppliers listed above.  You’ll only need 33 of them per rosary.  When you’re using gemstones, you may wish to opt for smaller beads – 8 millimeter Cruciforms and 6 millimeter Weeks (maybe smaller) – but even using the recommended 10/8 millimeter beads wouldn’t be cost-prohibitive.   Just make sure to use additional spacer beads if you use smaller-sized beads so that the completed rosary isn’t too small. 

One of the great things about using gemstones (aside from the fact that they look great and give your creation more substance) is that they have tremendous symbolic value.  For your convenience and consideration, a chart listing a few of the most commonly available semiprecious gemstones and their traditional significance is provided.