Make your own crossover rosary. How to make a plexiglass rosary with your own hands

Before you start making beads, first decide for what purposes they will be used by you. If for reading prayers, meditation and other religious rituals, then your attribute must have the appropriate number of beads. For Buddhism, this number is 18, 21, 27, 54 or 108, for Hinduism - 50, 54, 108, for Islam - 11, 33, 99 plus a pendant, for Catholicism - 50 divided by five tens, for Orthodoxy - 33, 103 or a multiple of 12 or 10, for the Old Believers - 109.

In the event that the rosary is not related to religion, but becomes only a calming attribute in your life, then the number of beads does not matter.

For example, in the thieves' world it is customary to have so-called ones that, according to thieves' legends, helped pickpockets to train manual dexterity.

How to make a rosary: determine the material for manufacturing

Rosaries can be made from a variety of materials. The easiest way is to go to the nearest shop that sells all kinds of jewelry and buy some beads or a bracelet. At home, you simply disassemble the product into its constituent elements (beads), in which holes have already been drilled, and string them on a fishing line or strong thread as you need.

You can not buy jewelry, but donate old grandmother's beads or even your own beads that you don't wear for the sake of the rosary.

How to make a rosary from bread

Bread, or rather, its crumb, is a popular "building" material among prisoners. Various crafts are made from it: dominoes, ashtrays, as well as beads for the rosary.

In addition to the above method, inventive prisoners make magnificent rosary beads from melted plastic parts of ballpoint pens and disposable ebonite, and even from packages of instant noodles such as Doshirak and Rollton.

How to make a plexiglass rosary

At the construction market, purchase plexiglass (approximately 90 by 90 mm in size and 5 to 10 mm thick). Then decide what size and shape you want the beads on your rosary to be (you can look at photos of finished products on the Internet and choose the one you like). Then we transfer the sketch to the sheet in the box at the required scale. Now we take a ruler, plexiglass and that sharp tool with which you will begin to draw contours on it from a sketch. Care must be taken as plexiglass is very easy to scratch.

Take a metal file and start cutting out the elements carefully, making sure not to deviate from the markup. Now you need to grind and polish each bead. Use sandpaper for sanding. Start with 240 grains and finish the process with 1000. Next, use a piece of genuine leather to polish. When your beads are smooth, nice and shiny, drill holes in them for threading.

How to make a classic rosary

Prepare the required number of beads of the same size and color, and one larger bead (it may even have a different shape or even not have the shape of a ball). All beads, except for the main one, should be strung on a thread or fishing line. Tie a knot after each bead for strength. Now thread both ends of the thread into a large bead, tie two or three knots and cut the ends with scissors (you can even melt them). The rosary, if desired, can be decorated with a brush. To do this, collect a bunch of threads and insert it before tying a knot. Make another fixing knot, straighten the brush and trim its edges with scissors.

How to make a crossover rosary

The crossover rosary is an open circuit in the form of a flat ribbon of rectangular or cruciform plates typed on a thread. In order to make such an attribute, take two threads and tie from one end. Then string the plates (in each for this you need to make two pairs of holes). The plates can be alternated with beads-balls.

The first association that arises when we hear the word "rosary" is related to religion, clergy and prayers. But it is worth adding “flip-flop” to this word, as the imagination draws places “not so remote” and prisoners famously twirling a small strip of flat plates between their fingers. Rosaries of this format were very common in prisons and among the so-called "lads", because they were made from improvised materials: plexiglass, ebonite, bread, bones. With such "talkers" the prisoners occupied their hands in order to relieve aggression and calm down.

Few people know that in fact, cross-over rosaries made of wood came to us from the Christian Caucasus. Believers in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Nowadays, this accessory is also used as a religious accessory, either to develop manual dexterity, or to prevent arthritis of the wrist joints.

What do flip rosaries look like?

This format of the rosary is not at all similar to. They are not closed in a circle, and there are no beads in the cross-over rosary made of wood. Instead, flat dies are used, closely fastened together with a strong elastic thread. There are many variations of this design: from the laconic design of wooden rectangles to carved models with beads and crosses, decorated with a pattern.

The most common number of "beads" in a flip rosary is 13. But sometimes there are also wooden flip rosaries of 8, 10 or 12 links.

We make crossover rosaries from wood with our own hands

Of course, now it is not difficult to buy a cross-over rosary made of wood in an online store, or look for them in the departments of wooden souvenirs. But if you want to make something unique for yourself or as a gift, we offer you a simple master class on how to make a flip rosary from wood with your own hands.

Wood is better, such as oak, juniper, ash, but you can get by with simpler species. For example, they are not afraid of rotting, so they will last you much longer than birch ones.

To determine the length of the finished rosary, you need to measure your palm from the beginning of your wrist to the tip of your middle finger. This length will be ideal for a rosary. Depending on this, you need their size. We will take for example a flip rosary of 12 links.

What we need to work:

One large blank (width 20 mm, height 10 mm), and several smaller ones (width 15 mm, height 10 mm);
Hacksaw;
Drill;
Strong thread;
Sandpaper;
Varnish or stain for wood;
A simple pencil for marking.

To make a flip rosary out of wood, we take small blanks and mark 12 links of 20 mm each on them. Saw with a hacksaw. As a result, we should get 12 identical rectangles. We grind and cut the bars with sandpaper. The next step is to make two extreme links. They can be larger and beveled at one corner, or taper towards the middle, like a petal. We draw a sketch on a tree, cut it out, carefully grind it.

Next, in all links, we drill holes for the passage of the thread. In the middle eight bars, we make two through holes each, while the extreme ones will need to make one more end hole in order to thread the thread and hide the knot. Then we varnish all the details, or apply a stain on them. The more layers of stain you apply, the darker the wood will be. Remember to dry each coat before reapplying.

Finally, everyone is ready, we can collect our rosary. Cut the thread and singe it on both sides. We fold it in half, make sure that the double thread is about 10-15 cm longer than the size of the rosary. We start with the extreme link. We thread one end of the thread through the end hole and bring it out into the hole, then thread the second end through the same end hole and bring it out into the second hole.

If earlier the rosary was exclusively a prayer attribute, now they can also act as a fashion accessory. Interestingly, the rosary is found in different religions. They may differ in materials, number of beads, appearance, finish, but they are used in the same way - they are sorted out when reading prayers. They are distinguished by a simple shape and design, so making a rosary with your own hands is not difficult.

The classic rosary looks like beads made of round beads, but there are also instances with oval, square and flat beads. You can make a rosary for yourself - they perfectly calm and allow you to concentrate, and you can also make them for a gift, in which case it will be unusual and exclusive. If you make a rosary using natural stones, then they can act as a talisman. Only in this case it is necessary to choose a stone for beads from among those suitable for you according to the horoscope.

In this article, we offer several options for making rosaries from different materials.

Wooden rosary

For their manufacture you will need: a wooden blank, stain and varnish, fishing line, a small drill, a needle, sanding paper.

A soft wood that can be easily worked, such as pine or spruce, is well suited as a material for wooden rosaries. First, a stick of the desired length and diameter is cut from the workpiece with a suitable tool on wood. The dimensions of this stick will determine the size of the beads in the rosary.

The wooden stick is marked into segments equal in length to the size of the beads, and the block is sawn into separate pieces. In this way, small wooden cubes are obtained, from which beads for the rosary will subsequently be made.
A thin drill is inserted into the mini-drill, with which a hole in the center will be drilled in each wooden cube. The drill must be guided exactly in the center and stand level so that the wooden bead does not split. After all the cubes are drilled, they can be filed or sanded to smooth out sharp edges and remove bumps and roughness.
The prepared cubes are covered with stain, which will give the tree a beautiful dark shade, and dried. If desired, you can decorate the beads with various symbols, which are first applied with a pencil, and then engraved with a special tool - a wood engraver. After that, the beads are varnished. This will protect them from mechanical damage and cracking.
Then the beads are strung on a thin fishing line of the desired length. You can alternate wooden beads with beads made of another material, such as ivory or glass. At the end of the fishing line in the rosary, they usually hang some kind of decoration - a fringe tassel, a cross, a symbol, a large bead - which designate the pommel of the rosary.
The fishing line is tied tightly, while it is important that the beads are strung freely and x can be moved to the side.

Rosary with knots

These rosaries can be made from different beads. Wood is considered the best material, but other beads are also suitable. All beads must have a central hole for threading. For these rosaries, you need one larger bead, it will be the main one. In order for it to stand out, you can take it in a different shape or from another material. The sizes of beads of a rosary are unprincipled, but beads with a diameter of 7 mm are considered the most convenient.

Rosary from bread

For these rosaries, an unconventional material is used - bread. They require bread, sugar, and manual dexterity to make them. It is better to take white bread from wheat flour of the second or third grade, and only the crumb is used.

There are two ways to make beads for a rosary.
First way. Bread crumb with the addition of sugar is kneaded in the hands. Sugar is added so that the beads do not crack. Moreover, the higher the quality of the bread, the more sugar should be. It is necessary to knead the crumb for a long time, at least an hour. After that, it becomes like plasticine. Some people think that water can be added to make the bread mass more plastic, but this is not so, water will only reduce the strength of the product. When the bread mass becomes plastic and it will be easy to sculpt various products from it, you can begin to form round beads. You can make beads of a different shape, and if you add dyes to the bread crumb, you can get colored beads.

The second way. This method allows you to get more durable products. Sugar is added to the bread crumb, and then the mixture is brewed with boiling water. The mixture is left in a warm place so that it begins to sour, and then the crumb is rubbed through cheesecloth. The resulting mass should dry out a little. At the same time, it must be mixed periodically so that it becomes like plasticine. After that, products can be sculpted from the bread mass. Since the mass is characterized by increased strength, therefore, the central hole in the beads of the rosary must be made immediately, before they dry out. When stringing the rosary, it is necessary to choose their length individually so that it is approximately the length of the palm.

Thanks to the appearance on the market of many new materials, tools and technologies, everyone can make something original, exclusive with their own hands. Thus, the distribution of plexiglass opens up great opportunities, which allows you to create a wide variety of useful objects. For example, the rosary. Yes, real rosaries can be made from plexiglass, and of good quality. And for this you need to first learn more about the material.

A little about organic glass beads

The manufacture of flip rosaries has been known to us since the time of the Union. Moreover, very often, plexiglass served as the material for their manufacture. And all thanks to its availability and excellent performance.

After all, for the rosary, light material was needed, which is not difficult to touch in one hand. At the same time, it is important that when the rosary falls, they do not break and are not damaged. Organic glass fits perfectly into these criteria. At the same time, the material did not erase the thread on which the elements were strung, and was also not damaged due to impacts against each other.

Since a person always wants variety, simple rosaries quickly got tired, and then the craftsmen came up with the idea of painting them, as well as decorating them in various ways. For example, the material could be boiled for hours in Zelenka. An original design method was also invented - with an internal thread. It was done in this way. The product was cut in half, irregularities were created inside with a cutter or other tool, paint of different colors was poured into them, then the halves were glued together again - a three-dimensional product was created with colored elements inside.

Plexiglas elements popular then: roses, spiders, card suits and others. To create a truly original and beautiful little thing, the craftsmen, who were few, had to go to this for more than one year, constantly creating something new.

If we consider the rosary, then when they are made from plexiglass, there are only a few requirements: an attractive appearance and comfort of use. These tasks need to be set for yourself when creating a rosary.

Material

Plexiglas has long been known for its excellent characteristics:

Waterproof, resistant to chemicals, ultraviolet, low temperatures. Since the rosary has to be used in different conditions, including weather conditions, this quality is very useful.
Strength. Of course, without this property, it would be impossible to create durable products, so the manufactured rosary will be practical.

Ease. Another important parameter, otherwise it would be inconvenient to throw the product in one hand.
Thanks to transparency, you can achieve original visual effects when creating products.
Environmental friendliness. Plexiglas beads are completely safe to use.
Ease of processing allows you to create products of the most ornate forms.

Instruction

First you need to arm yourself with a hacksaw or a jigsaw to cut pieces of plexiglass, which will be links in a flip rosary. The average dimensions are 2 cm wide and 1 cm long. The extreme links should be heavier, so they are made somewhat larger than all the others.

How to determine the number of links? To do this, determine the size of the palm.

In order to get the links of the original colors, it is worth using colored plexiglass, which will give the product the desired effect. As already mentioned, transparent plastic can be boiled in brilliant green or iodine, and custom elements can be created by cutting them in half, filling them with paint and gluing them again.

To turn classic beads, you need to process the material on a lathe. The diameter of the beads should not be more than 1 cm. Or you can take a plexiglass rod, make a hole in it and cut it into several elements that will be links in the flip rosary. You can supplement them with a cross, which is also made of plexiglass, like the main elements.

It remains only to string all the links, having received an exclusive rosary. The product is ready.

In addition to the photo, you can additionally watch a video instruction on how the process is carried out.

Not so long ago, the rosary was considered an exclusively religious attribute, but today's fashion trends have made them one of the most original and unusual accessories that are in demand not only among women, but also among men. Such decorations can be easily made with your own hands, without having specific skills and abilities.

Traditional flip-over Orthodox rosaries can vary in the number of beads, the type of materials used, and finishes. This allows them to be used as decorations that can go with clothes of different styles. Since the design is quite simple, it can be assembled practically from improvised means.

Types of materials

How to make original rosary with your own hands? To make jewelry yourself, you should decide on the type of material that the accessory will consist of.

For the manufacture, you can use the following materials:

In addition, you can weave a rosary with knots, which will make the decoration non-standard and original. Such accessories can hardly be purchased in a souvenir shop, but it’s easy to assemble them yourself.

Plexiglas product

The whole process of making jewelry is rightfully considered a real art, because the author of the creation can use a huge number of techniques that will allow you to create your own small masterpiece. How to make a plexiglass rosary?

This will require the following materials:

Weaving a pigtail in this case is completely optional if you do not know how. It will be enough to string the beads on a nylon thread. True, the manufacturing process of the product itself is quite laborious, since you have to deal with small details.

Manufacturing process:

Using a hacksaw, cut out the required number of beads of the same size from a sheet of plexiglass;
The size of all links should not exceed 1 × 2 cm;
It is advisable to make the extreme beads a little larger than the rest, if the rosary needs to be made flip;
The total number of all links can be easily determined by the size of the palm;
Then, in the center of each bead, you need to carefully drill through holes;
Using a regular needle, string all the links on a nylon thread;
To get a creative multi-colored accessory, all links can be painted in different colors using ordinary iodine, blue and other coloring materials.

bread product

How to make a rosary from bread? This may seem very strange to some, but such designs can be easily made even from ordinary bread.

This will require the following set of products:

There are two methods for creating bread products from which you can choose the best for yourself.

To make a rosary according to the first method, you need to follow the following sequence:

Add granulated sugar to the bread crumb. This is done so that the links do not crack over time;
The bread is then kneaded by hand. After about an hour, it will turn into a pliable mass, making it easier to work with;
Divide the plastic mass into several parts and form small balls of the same size;
Before the links harden, string them onto the thread.

In fact, the whole process will take you no more than an hour and a half, but the product will turn out to be short-lived.

In this sense, the second way to create an accessory is much more preferable:

Orthodox rosary

How can you make an Orthodox rosary with your own hands? To assemble a product designed to count the prayers and bows read during the service, you will need not only a thread with beads, but also a cross with Christ's crucifix. This is what a traditional Orthodox attribute looks like. It is optimal to use pine as a material for creating beads, since it is the best to process.

To make an accessory, you will need a fairly serious set of tools and materials, namely:

thick fishing line;
mini drill;
polishing paper;
wooden blanks;
alkyd varnish;
stain.

Manufacturing process of wooden rosary:

wickerwork

How to make beautiful flip rosary from soutache? To make such a product, approximately 6 m of material will be required. This is enough to weave a rosary for 50 knots. Weaving is quite complicated, so you need to be patient to create jewelry. The whole process of weaving soutache threads is shown on the video, thanks to which a non-professional will be able to assemble a rosary of 33-50 knots.

At the same time, the number of knots in the rosary is not chosen by chance:

A 30-knot product with 3 beads symbolizes the years of Christ's life on earth;
At 50 knots - reminiscent of Pentecost;
70 knots are woven in honor of 70 apostles;
At 100 knots - the classic and most common version of the rosary used by monks.

To make a beautiful accessory, you can use almost any materials at hand: the more unusual they are, the more original the decoration will turn out.

However, it should be understood that the rosary is primarily a religious attribute, so it is not advisable to throw it away, drop it or keep it in the dirt.