Marian Devotions

Bead-and-Cord Rosaries

Page 58 in "Marian Devotions in the Domestic Church"

Catherine Fournier and Peter Fournier

Bead-and-cord rosaries are also very inexpensive, strong, and easy to make. Children can make them quite easily. In fact, if you have a patient child who is between the ages of eight and fourteen, a younger child (ages three to seven) could help by threading the beads while the older child ties the knots. 

Because the materials and directions are so simple, and the rosary is finished quite quickly, bead-and-cord rosaries are also good projects to do while at a cottage or summer camp. 

Materials

  • 63 beads of your choice. (This includes extra, in case you lose a few. If you are using different-sized beads, you will need 55 small beads, 7 large beads, and 1 larger bead with a hole big enough for two thicknesses of cord.) 
  • 8 feet of nylon cord (enough to make one rosary—and some mistakes)
  • A plastic or metal crucifix 
  • Clear nail polish or shellac 
  • Pair of sharp scissors 

Directions

  1. 1. Dip both ends of the cord into nail polish or shellac. The stiffened end will make it easier to thread the beads. Allow the cord ends to dry; this might take half an hour or more. (To save time, you could cut and prepare several cord-lengths at once, if you are making more than one rosary.)
  2. 2. Measure 8 inches from one end of the cord. Make the first knot here.

    The knots are constructed the same way as for knotted-cord rosaries, but each knot is wrapped only twice instead of three or six times.
  3. 3. Thread a bead onto the long end of the cord, and slide it up against your first knot.

    Now you have a choice. Each bead can be held in place between knots (as shown below, top), or each decade can be threaded as a group and beheld in place, and be separated from the Our Father beads, by knots (as shown below, bottom).

    For either type of decade, thread the bead or beads, then form a second knot-remembering to wrap only twice, then sliding the knot off your finger and tightening.
  4. 4. If you are making your rosary with each bead separated by a knot, maneuver the knot close to the bead as you are tightening it. There should be a very small space between the beads and knots to allow the beads to turn freely as they move through your fingers when you are praying. This spacing will also make it easier to fold the rosary up to carry in a pouch or pocket.

    If you are making your rosary with each decade strung between end-knots only, place the closing knot a short distance from the last bead, so that the beads can move freely within the decade.
  1. 5. Now place an Our Father bead on the cord:

    First form a knot to hold the Our Father bead in place, leaving a space of about a finger's width (though this will depend somewhat on the size of your beads) between it and the last knot of the decade.

    Then thread a bead and tie a knot, tightening it snugly, but not tightly, up against the bead. You can use a larger bead for the Our Father beads, or all beads of the same size. Usually the different spacing is enough to be able to distinguish them.
  2. 6. Continue stringing beads and tying knots until you have five decades made.
  3. 7. Hold the first Hail Mary bead of the first decade and the last Hail Mary bead of the last decade together in your left hand with the ends of the cords lying across your pointer finger. Make a knot, but this time wrap the cord around your finger only once. Leave the same space between the Hail Mary beads and this knot as you have left for the Our Father beads.
  4. 8. String the largest bead onto both cords, and tie another knot to hold it in place.
  5. 9. Burn off one of the cords close to this last knot with a match or lighter. An adult should do this.
  6. of the rosary in the same way you made the decades, but stringing only three Hail Mary beads instead of ten. 
  7. 11. The cross can be made in three ways:
  • Tie a plastic crucifix onto the end of the "tail". 
  • Make a knotted crucifix as described in the section for Knotted-Cord Rosaries (page 57). 
  • Make a crucifix with beads and knots by stringing five beads onto the cord and holding them in place with a knot. Bum the remaining cord off with a lighter or match. Tie a short piece of cord between the second and third beads (as described in the section about KnottedCord Rosaries-page 57), and string two beads onto each end. Hold them in place with a knot, and burn off the tips of the cord. 

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