Rosary Beads

Rosary Beads History and use

Rosary Beads – Who Uses Them

rosary beads

Wooden Rosary beads


For some Christians, Rosary beads are indispensable for keeping their faith uppermost in their thoughts. They perceive the Rosary as a representation of the Gospel and it acts both as an aid-mémoire and a tool for prayer and meditation. The Rosary is also seen by some as an expression of the life of Jesus as viewed by Mary his mother.

Rosary beads are also used by faiths other than Catholics, The Anglican Church, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindus all have their own version of Rosary beads. Whenever prayers need to be recited a certain number of tmes, a set of Rosary beads may be used to keep count. They are made of a series of beads strung on a single thread and each bead can be used to mark the recitation of a prayer, a bit like a simple abacus.

Rosary Beads – Design

Each set of catholic Rosary beads is made up of fifty individual beads. The beads are grouped into five sets of ten beads with each set representing one of the five mysteries. Sometimes a larger beads will be used to separate each group of ten smaller beads. A set of 10 are known as a Decade.

Rosaries have been made from a vast range of materials ranging from simple materials such as wood, bone, glass, stone to more expensive semi-precious stones such as Agate, jasper, jet, agate and precious metals like gold and silver. These days there is a vast range of materials that could be used.
Look through some of the other pages to get ideas for what to use if you wish make your own. One of the earliest materials used was the “bead pea” or “rosary pea” which are the seeds of the “Abrus precatorius” plant. The seeds are actualy toxic!

Rosary beads – Origins

The idea of Rosary beads began in the fourth century with the Desert Fathers. The Desert Father were a group of monks who lived in the Scetes desert in Egypt from the early third century and played an important role in the development of early christianity. They had a prayer rope which allowed them to count the number of times that the Lords prayer had been recited. By 1075 it is reported that Lady Godiva, An Anglo-Saxon noblewoman (famed for riding naked through the streets of Coventry Naked, which story is the source for the name “peeping Tom”) had a rosary made of precious stones which she had tied to a string to keep count of her prayers. It was actually mentioned in her will.

The word rosary comes fron the Latin for “rose Garden” which means “garland of roses” and rosary beads are used to count out the prayers that make up “the rosary” in catholic devotions. This is made up of repeating, several times, the Lords Prayer followed by 10 Hail Mary’s and a single “Glory be to the Father”. The Fatima Prayer may sometimes also be said.
Repeating the Hail Mary became a recognised form of devotion in the mid 12th century. St Rosalia had a string of rosaybeads buried with her in 1160 a.d. The name rosary was coined in the mid 13th century and the first recognised use was by Thomas of Champitre in “De Apibus” although not mentioned specifically as prayer beads.

Rosary Beads – Today

finger rosary

finger rosary


Rosaries are regarded as sacred and should not be used as ordinary jewelry. Some may contain a drop of holy water or other sacred relics. Some have a special significance due to the material they are made from such as olive seeds from the garden of Gethsemane or jet from St.James’s Shrine at Satiago de Compostela.
Recent variations on traditional strung rosary beads include finger rings, bracelets and a rosary card. Essentially, a means of counting 10 with a larger item to show the completion of the Decade such as a crucifix, is the main requirement from a set of Rosary beads.

Tips to Buy Beads Online

Is it safe to buy beads online?

Yes it usually very safe to buy beads online and the majority of beaders will buy beads this way. But there are a few simple rules to follow.

When you buy beads for jewelry online you can get some fantastic bargains, or you could find that you maybe haven’t got quite the bargain you thought you had. But with a little care you will be able to shop on-line safely and make some great savings.

It’s very easy to surf from site to site and window shop (should that be screen shop?) but that is all you are actually doing. You might suddenly see the bead bargain of a lifetime and wham! you hit the button and buy. There are several things that could lead to disappointment when you buy beads online if you do not make absolutely sure of what you are getting for your money.

What should You check when you buy beads online

Check before you commit to buying exactly what the shipping cost is. When you are buying online you could be buying from anywhere in the world. That’s not a problem, it’s given us a much greater choice of supplies and some great prices. BUT, the items you order have to be delivered and there is usually a charge. If they are coming from the other side of the world it could be quite a considerable charge. Make sure you know what it will cost before you order. If in doubt you can always email the supplier to check. There should always be a method to contact them on the website. If there isn’t, well maybe it’s not such a great site.

Another thing to do before you buy beads online is to check the terms and conditions of the sale. Find out what the policies are on returns, how long you have to contact them if the beads arrive damaged, the wrong items were delivered or you don’t receive them.

Make sure you are aware exactly what you are ordering. Sizes can be difficult to estimate from photographs and texture, finish, material used need to be checked in the descriptions. If you order the wrong thing then even if the supplier lets you return them for a refund(and some may not) you will still have to pay the return shipping if the items you received were as described.

What else can make it safer to buy beads online

Consider your method of payment. Yes we are all more used to buying online these days but it pays to be carefull when paying. Credit cards or paypal will offer you some protection if the items do not arrive or are not as described. It’s not often a problem but when you do have a disagreement with a supplier it’s great to have someone who can help get your money back for you.

If you do get a problem when you have bought items (maybe they are not as described) the first thing to do is contact the supplier. Most suppliers are very helpfull and want to maintain a good relationship with their customers. Remember they want you to buy beads online from them. If they have made a mistake they
are usually very eager to put it right, so don’t go in guns blazing. Mistakes can happen but by contacting the supplier as soon as possible there is a much better chance of reaching a satisfactory conclusion. If you leave it a couple of weeks before getting back to them you have much less chance of sorting things out. This is particularly true if you are claiming for goods damaged in transit.

Check everything as soon as it arrives! It may seem obvious but if you are buying more expensive items, you need to be even more careful. Check the descriptions and then double check. You can save yourself a lot of time and money with a little bit of care.

So, is it safe to buy beads online?

Yes of course it is, Having said all of the above, There should not be many problems. Once you have purchased online a few times it will all be second nature to you but if you are just starting to buy beads online, be careful.

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Glass Lampwork Beads

Beadstore – Glass Lampwork Beads

Beadstore – What Are Lampwork Beads

lampwork beads are one of the many forms of glass beads available

Lampworking takes it’s name from the method used to make the beads, a lamp! Originally (a long time ago) the beads were made by melting glass using an oil or spirit lamp which had extra oxygen pumped in by a bellows or similar means, These days a  lampworker will use a hothead torch or an oxygen propane torch to get the same result. The beads are produced by melting glass and adding colours to the mix as the  bead is made.

Beadstore – Hollow Glass Lampwork Beads

You can see a tutorial from mercurysglass below which shows how hollow glass lampwork beads are made.

When glass lampwork beads are made, the heating and stretching of the glass introduce stresses into the bead, so after they are finished they are usually annealled. This is where the beads are put into a kiln and go through a measured process of heating and cooling which removes these stresses. Without this the glass is liable to crack when cooled, even if it does not occur immediately the stresses may cause the bead to crack later.

Beadstore-Types of Lampwork beads

There are several methods of making beads from glass. Winding, shown above, is where the glass rods are heated and wound round a metal mandrel (wire).  Moulding where the hot glass is pressed into a mould to shape it, and Drawing where the hot glass has a bubble formed in it and the glass is stretched into long strands called canes. The canes can then be cut into small pieces and the bubble inside forms the hole for stringing..

The winding method is the more traditional form of lampworking, or fireworking as it becoming known these days, although a mixture of drawing to mass produce beads and then lampworking extra detail onto the drawn beads (after reheating) used to be a common method of production.

Beadstore – where did Lampworking start

We can’t be sure exactly where or when making glass beads began but Lampworking became very popular in Murano Italy in the 14th century. Murano is a group of islands in the Venetian Lagoon and is still world renowned for its beautiful glasswork today.

lampwork beads allow the beadmaking artist to create a huge range of sizes, colours and styles of bead, from tiny seed beads to the larger hollow beads shown in the video. The design is only limited by the artists imagination. A quick search of the internet will show some of the absolutely beautiful designs which are currently being created and which may serve as inspiration for your own Lampwork.

The Venerable BEADS

The Venerable BEADS

Just how old are beads and beading?

The title of this post is not as bad a play on words as you might at first think. Beads have been venerated for millennia.

Beads are known to have been made about  40,000 years ago, In 2004, Francesco d’Errico of  CNRS UMR (the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Unité Mixte de Recherche) in  France. found an amount  of shell beads at Blombos Cave in South Africa .  These were then dated and found to have been made roughly 75,000 years ago. They not only had holes drilled in them but also had marks caused by wear from being threaded on a string, More recent discoveries suggest that beads were being made from shells approximately 100,000 years ago. It’s fair to say that beading is not a new hobby but it is certainly getting more and more popular again,

tiny shells may be worlds oldest beads/

Beads have been used all over the world for adorning clothes, for praying, for counting, as jewellery, as charms and talismans and even as a form of money for trading.

Egyptian Faience Beads

The ancient Egyptians were believed to be making beads from faience as early as 5000 BC. When we refer to Faience these days, we are generally talking about glazed earthenware which takes it’s name from a town in Italy named Faenza, where a tin-glazed ceramics were made in many factories. The ancient Egyptian Faience however was more like an early type of glass from pulverised quartz or sand and mixed with sodium other chemicals to produce different colours. This was then heated (fired) which bought out the colours of the pigments. Once it has been fired the faience developed a very hard glazed surface. The British Museum has a net made of  turquoise Faience beads on a linen thread. These nets were commonly used as the final wrapping for a mummy of a wealthy person.

The history of beads is a large and fascinating subject which I hope to cover in later posts. Today beads are growing in popularity again and being used for many things such as charms, bracelets necklaces, earrings, decorating clothing and bags, prayer beads, worry beads.. The list goes on.