The Ungalled Hart

Lately, I’ve been making glass-beaded spiders to gift to friends and co-workers just for fun. Spiders are a great beginner beading project because they’re easy to make but look very impressive and pretty when finished. There are hundreds of different types of beaded spiders online—some use gems or stones for the body, others add a flourish of wire wrapping, and some turn the spiders into suncatchers, Christmas ornaments, or brooches. Personally, I like the styles that bead the body rather than using a large gemstone or pearl, so I decided to try and recreate some I saw online.  It’s usually pretty easy to figure out how something is made—the challenge is typically making sure you have the right tools/materials on hand to make it happen. In this case, I could tell the wire needed to be thin enough to go through the beads multiple times, especially the bugle beads used for the legs, but not break when bent. Luckily, I knew 28-gauge craft wire is very thin but still holds shape when b...

  Prayer beads are not found in the Bible, nor are they required for faith, but for centuries, Christians have found them to be a helpful tool during prayer. Many Protestant denominations do not use prayer beads, as they associate them with the prayer repetitions warned against in Matthew 6:7. However, the original intention of medieval prayer beads was simply to help monks keep track of their place while reciting through the Book of Psalms ( or the Psalter) . Of course, not everyone could read or memorize all 150 Psalms, so an alternative was created: the Paternoster (Latin for “Lord’s Prayer”) and other short prayers could be recited instead. This practice helped medieval Christians meditate on and reflect on the word of God, as encouraged in the Bible. And - just in case you were wondering - the Paternoster was the foundation for the Catholic rosary as we know it today. I decided to make my own Paternoster, one that could be used while reading through the Book of Psalms. I also ...