https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/rockin-rosary-necklace • Posted by Vermin Jerky
I'd seen other rosary-inspired necklaces, and I thought they were really cool. I'm not religious but the form of the rosary is beautiful. This one is authentically designed like a real rosary, but in hot colors, a guitar pick in place of the centerpiece, and a guitar charm in place of a cross or crucifix. For those wicked people like me who worship false idols and rock gods. ;) (Sorry, I know the photos are lousy. My real camera is malfunctioning and I had to use my MP3 player.)
I'd seen other rosary-inspired necklaces, and I thought they were really cool. I'm not religious but the form of the rosary is beautiful. This one is authentically designed like a real rosary, but in hot colors, a guitar pick in place of the centerpiece, and a guitar charm in place of a cross or crucifix. For those wicked people like me who worship false idols and rock gods. ;) (Sorry, I know the photos are lousy. My real camera is malfunctioning and I had to use my MP3 player.)
My guitar charm was plain silver and I wanted it to match the hot pink of the rest of the necklace, so I used a bit of nail polish to punch it up a little bit.
Here's a diagram of how your necklace will be put together. Click the image for a full-sized version.
PUTTING THE CHAIN TOGETHER: . Here's a diagram of how to make a small bead link in the chain. Click on it to see the text instructions. You'll need one medium bead and two seed beads (if you're using them) for each link. (Real rosaries don't ordinarily have seed beads. I'm using them to add more color.) . It might be hard to tell, but my guitar pick is kind of a hot melon color, while my rose beads and guitar are fuchsia, so I have seed beads of two colors to match each shade of pink. I'm alternating the shades of pink on each link.
Connect ten of the small bead links together to make one decade. Then make a large bead link the same way as a small one, but without seed beads, and connect it to the chain. . Repeat this four times, then add one final decade after the last large bead.
ADDING THE CENTERPIECE (GUITAR PICK): . Now put some little holes in your guitar pick. Here's a diagram of where to put the holes. . You can use three or four holes. I used four to help keep the bottom dangle more stable. . I used a drill to make my holes, but I don't think that was the best method. It was kind of hard on the plastic. You could (carefully!) heat a needle to poke holes, but I think the best way would be with a small hole punch. . Connect the ends of the finished chain to the top two holes of the guitar pick with jump rings.
CONSTRUCTING THE BOTTOM DANGLE: . If you look at the diagram of the full necklace, you'll see you need to make a short chain, consisting of one large bead, three small beads, and one more large bead. . Once this is finished, connect it to the bottom of the guitar pick with a jump ring (or two if there are two holes).
Add the guitar charm to the bottom with another jump ring. . You can see my guitar charm has a second eye at the bottom, so I decided to put feather charms here, but it's definitely not an authentic touch.
CLASP: . If you like, you can add a clasp, which will make it much easier to wear. (The necklace was too long without doubling it over, but I couldn't fit it over my head doubled over, so I had to add a clasp.) . I used a barrel clasp; magnetic clasp would also work very well. . If you look at the necklace diagram, you can see I added it to the very back of the loop that goes around your neck, midway through a decade. You could add it anywhere convenient, though. . Once you're happy with your configuration, your necklace is ready to wear!