This is not a rosary but a way to bless each member of the family, close friends, and others requesting daily prayer by stringing their birthstones on a chain with my grandmother Parish's jade cross. I got the idea from the wooden beads we used to support our mission team in prayer with each person's name on one bead. Jesse suggested using birthstones from the family, and from there I was on it.
With this restringing I anticipate needing to allow more time for prayer. Plus we've had news of little ones expected in the family so I've included them.
The beads are tear drops, pearls, squares and circles, chunks of rock (e.g. citrine, turquoise), faceted glass that sparkles in the light. Amber spirals represent church leaders, stars for President Obama and the ACLU, a large black and gold bead for Landmark Forum Leaders.
Technically, I'm using 21-strand fine Soft Flex wire, 0.014 inches which the lady at the Bead Emporium assured me was fine enough for pearls and strong enough for heavy rock jewelry. As spacers I used ceramic black beads from a former necklace and small gold beads. Prices ranged from 5 cents to $5 a bead.. I discovered during the third re-stringing that since you can't really knot the wire, more frequent use of crimp tubes (squashed with needle nose pliers) was helpful. I put loops at both ends to help me hold onto the beads for prayer.
I found a soft quilted pouch to stash the beads in my purse for lighting prayers or idle moments. January and October months have only three birthdays each, so the individual the bead represents is easy to remember--March has nine as does August for some reason. If I pray the beads every day for a year I expect I will learn all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren and cousins of our extensive family and have a hope of remembering their birthdays.