Parts Catalogue
Thank you for visiting the parts and findings catalogue!
In this section, you will find cast reproduction crucifixes, rosary centers, and religious medals for rosary makers and for use in jewelry. You will also find specialty wires and custom cut jump rings for rosary and jewelry construction.
Lower down on this page you will find general information about our cast reproduction parts and the findings we offer, including a comprehensive ring cap sizing guide, if you plan to make rosaries with little ring "caps" on your beads the way we do here.
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Cast Reproduction Rosary Parts
The religious medallists' art, especially European medallists from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century, is extraordinary. At Meinssen Handmade, we're trying to preserve as much of this wonderful art as we can with molded and cast reproductions.
Rosary parts with the prefix "MRM" are from our own collection of vintage and antique pieces. We polish and oxidize these reproduction parts ourselves, and offer them in Sterling silver, red bronze and white bronze.
Beautiful rosary parts with the prefix "E" are from an out-of-house collection, and more widely available in the marketplace. These castings are offered in Sterling silver, red bronze, and often white bronze as well.
All of these cast reproduction crucifixes, rosary centers and religious medals may be used in construction of rosaries and chaplets of your own, to wear as an element of jewelry, or to give as gifts. Please don't hesitate to write us if you have questions or special needs with your rosary parts. We'll try our best to help!
Rosary and Jewelry Wires
"Chained" rosaries (where the wire used to build chains of beads is visible) call for wire to match the metal of the crucifix, rosary center or religious medal. Over time, we have developed a fumed red brass wire finish which matches cast red bronze parts beautifully. We offer our fumed red brass wire in a half hard temper from 24ga to 19ga.
White bronze wire is not currently available in the marketplace, so we have chosen oxidized Sterling silver-filled wire to match our white bronze parts. This is high quality wire where one tenth the weight of the wire is solid Sterling silver. Sterling naturally ages first to a warm golden color, then on to dark brown and black, so it matches nicely with the champagne silver color of white bronze. Because we do the wire oxidizing ourselves, we are able to give you a light oxidation or a very dark gunmetal oxidation for dramatic rosaries. So if you have special needs on color, please send us a note! White bronze rosaries are a cost-effective alternative to solid Sterling rosaries, and some of our favorite finished pieces.
We also have listings for raw red brass wire (nu-gold bronze) which is a golden color, and is the same wire that we use to fume. Raw red brass wire may be used with yellow bronze parts or as a less expensive, high quality practice wire for new rosary makers.
Custom Cut and Finished Jump Rings
For making connections and to "ring cap" beads in chained rosaries, we offer a range of custom cut and finished jump rings. We make our jump rings from half hard wire so that they're strong. We have mandrels that scale up by one tenth in size from 1.5mm to 5mm, so if you need a size that you're not finding in the listings, please send us a note and we'll see how we may help. Custom jump rings are offered in fumed red brass, oxidized silver-filled and raw red brass, Sterling silver and gold filled.
Jump Ring Sizing Guide
Here are recommended bead size/jump ring size/construction wire gauge combinations. There is overlap between bead size and ring cap size, so that you have plenty of flexibility in determining your construction parameters as far as the beads are concerned. One thing to bear in mind is that fatter wires may not fit into tiny ring caps. Be aware that inside the ring cap, the construction wire is doubled (one wire coming out, the end of the bent wire coming back in). For example, a 19g wire (.9mm in diameter) is too fat to fit doubled over into a 20g, 1.6mm inner diameter ring (.9mm + .9mm = 1.8mm).
For 5mm to ~6mm round beads:
20ga, 1.6mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 21ga construction wire, or
20ga, 1.7mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 21ga construction wire (if you tend to make slightly larger wire loops).
For 6mm to ~8mm round beads:
20ga, 1.8mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 20ga construction wire. A very nice fit, especially for larger, feminine rosaries!
For 8mm to ~10mm round beads:
20ga, 2mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 20ga construction wire (lighter weight beads), or
20ga, 2mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 19ga construction wire (for weighty beads like rhodochrosite, sapphire and celestite, or for beads with drills over 1mm which require thicker construction wire), or
19ga, 2mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 19ga construction wire.
For 8mm to ~12mm round beads:
19ga, 2mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 19ga construction wire. A good combination for masculine rosaries and Pater beads.
For round beads 12mm and larger:
19ga, 2.2mm ID (inner diameter) jump rings, with 19ga construction wire. 2.2mm ID rings will require you to bend a larger loop so that the ring cap seats properly against the bead.
For connecting rings:
Most rosary centers will accept 18ga, 2.5mm inner diameter rings. For very small rosary centers, 20ga or 19ga, 2.5mm inner diameter will usually work. To connect your crucifix, 18ga, 3mm inner diameter will work with most small and medium sized crucifixes. Big or heavy crucifixes might require that you step up to 16ga, 3.5mm or 4mm or 5mm inner diameter, or make the connection with a wire bowtie wrap.