Wire Rosaries

Page 53 in "Marian Devotions in the Domestic Church"

Catherine Fournier and Peter Fournier

• 62 beads—this includes a few extras. If you are using different size beads for the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys, you will need 55 small beads, and 7 large beads.
• 8 feet of wire—enough to make one rosary (with a few mistakes). Choices include: aluminum (aluminium) wire; nickel-silver wire; sterling-silver, silver-filled, or gold-filled wire.
• crucifix—with a loop at the top
• center piece—with three loops
• rosary pliers (or jewelry pliers)—small needle-nosed type
• wire-cutting pliers (rosary pliers include this function) 

1. 1. Cut a length of wire that you can comfortably hold and manipulate (about 6 to 8 inches). Hold the wire in one hand so that the natural curve of the wire follows the curve of your palm.
2. 2. Grip the very end of the wire with the pliers, so that none of the end of the wire sticks out. The size of the wire loop is deter mined by how far up on the pliers' tapered tines the wire is placed.
3. 3. Turn the pliers while holding the wire snugly against the pliers with your free thumb and forefinger, until the wire has made a complete circle. (Using both hands to make the loop will help keep your hands and wrists from getting tired.) You will have a shape like a shepherd's crook.
4. 4. Keeping the tine of the pliers inside the loop, loosen your grip slightly, and rotate the pliers clockwise as far as they will go. Again tighten your grip, and continue bending the wire as before, until you have a nearly closed loop.
5. 5. Remove the pliers from the loop, and then close it completely by placing the tines of the pliers on the outside of the loop, as shown by the black circles in the illustration. Pinch the loop together carefully and gently. Try to keep it circular rather than squeezing it into an oval. It's fine if it remains slightly open.

1. 6. Thread a bead onto the wire and move it up to your loop. Place the tips of the pliers snugly up against the bead, with the wire about as far up on the tines of the pliers as for the first loop, so that the next loop will be the same size as the first.
2. 7. Again, rotate the pliers as before to form a U-shape loop.
3. 8. Cut the wire so that the end is even with the bead, as shown below.
4. 9. Carefully pinch closed the new loop, so that the end of the wire meets the beginning of the loop. The bead should not be too loose but should rotate freely on the wire.
   
   You have made the first bead link.
5. 10. Set the first bead-link aside, and repeat steps 6 through 9 to form the next one. This time, before closing the second loop of the link completely, hook it through the last closed loop of your first bead-link, and then close it. Continue making bead links and connecting them until you have a group of ten beads.

Though it takes some practice to make even bow-links, they are attractive and extremely strong. Strength is appreciated in a homemade rosary. 

1. 11. Holding the pliers in one hand and the wire in the other, grasp the wire with the pliers about 1/4 inch from the end. Bend the wire to a 45-degree angle where it meets the pliers.
2. 12. Move the pliers to grip the wire on the long side of the angle you've just made. Rotate the pliers to make a full-circle loop, as you did when making the bead-links, so that it now looks like this:

1. 13. Next, rotate the pliers inside the loop until the tine outside the loop is against the 1/4-inch stub of wire. Bend the long end of wire until it runs parallel to the stub.
2. 14. Make a 45-degree angle in the long wire, as before, and make another next to this angle. Your bow-link will now look like a long figure-8.
3. 15. Slip the end of your first decade chain onto the first loop of the bow-link. (You will attach the first bead loop of the next decade chain onto the other end of the bow by hooking the new loop through the closed loop of the bowlink.)
4. 16. To complete the bow-link, grip your second loop with the pliers and wrap the long end of wire snugly around the two center wires, as shown at right, from one loop to the other. Cut off the remaining wire and pinch the cut end back into the wrapped coil. You have completed the bow, and your first decade of Hail Mary beads is attached to your first bow-link.
5. 17. Use the directions for making a bead-link to add an Our Father bead to the free side of the bow-link. Make another bow-link to attach to the free side of the Our Father bead.
6. 18. Continue in the same fashion until you have five decades of Hail Mary beads, with an Our Father bead connecting them.
   
   Then make the section consisting of an Our Father bead, three Hail Mary beads, another Our Father bead, and the crucifix, as shown below.

1. 19. Note that the center piece you are using may be so shaped as to have a "top" and a "bottom". The string of five decades attaches to the top, and the section with the crucifix and the five beads attaches to the bottom, using bow-links, as shown in the diagram.
   
   Wind off these last connecting bow-links only after all parts are attached.
2. 20. Examine your rosary carefully. Run it through your fingers. If you feel any sharp wires sticking out, crimp them back.

Congratulations! You have completed your first wire rosary!