Lutheran prayer beads

This week I made these two sets of Lutheran prayer beads. The larger set is the "Lutheran rosary" or "Lutheran Lenten Chaplet" of the same kind I made back in February. The smaller one is called the Wreath of Christ - Frälsarkransen or Savior Ring.

For the Lenten Chaplet, I got the black cross from my local bead store (JSM Bead Coop). It is carved from horn. The cable is covered with #15 matte black seed-beads from JSM. The small black beads (the weekday beads) are 7 millimeter wooden ovals [AMC #522] from Ave Maria's Circle. They slide on the cable as your fingers move over them in prayer. The larger black and gray globes (the Sunday beads) are fixed in position on the cable. They are snowflake obsidian and come from JSM too. The large white globe (the Easter bead) is howlite, and also comes from JSM.

The largest bead on the Savior Ring is the gold God bead. I used a gold colored globe of dichroic glass from JSM. Next largest in size are the seven 8mm rounds. Five of them are glass druks from JSM, and two are glass pearls [OLRM #655] from Our Lady's Rosary Makers. The 6mm rounds are Swarovski glass pearls. There are also six 5x9mm clear glass ovals from JSM. For an explanation of how these beads are prayed, go here.

Lutheran lenten chaplet

http://archive.elca.org/communication/rosary.html

I finished this project today. It is a rosary-like chaplet patterned on the structure of the liturgical season of Lent. The charcoal-gray pearl after the cross represents Ash Wednesday the next 3 amethyst crystals represent the next 3 Lenten weekdays, and the lavender pearl represents the first Sunday of lent. Skipping over the large white pearl in the center, the amethyst crystals represent the weekdays of Lent, and the pearls represent the Sundays. The rose pearl stands for Lætare Sunday. Finally, the large white pearl in the center symbolizes Easter Sunday.

*Around the circle, then, are beads for the days of Lent plus the Sundays of Lent (a little larger, a different color to make them stand out), for, of course, the Sundays are all celebrated as "little Easters" and thus are not counted among the 40 days of Lent. First four Lent beads, then one Sunday, then the rest in groups of six and one. The last bead is Easter and may be larger and lighter in color than all.