A Little Something Extra
Lagniappe
Handmade rosaries & crucifixes from salvaged piano parts — commissioned with care for the people and moments that matter most.
Rome, 2013 — the friar's rosary alongside one of my own rope rosaries
Where It Began
A Wednesday Audience, a Florentine Family, and a Friar's Gift
In 2013, I was in Rome waiting for a Wednesday General Audience with Pope Francis — still early in his pontificate, and already beloved. I had been making simple rope rosaries to pass the time on the trip, the kind you knot by hand, decade by decade, with patience and repetition. While waiting in the crowd, I fell into conversation with an Italian family from Florence sitting nearby, and over the course of that morning I ended up giving several of them away.
The Franciscan friar traveling with the family reached into his pocket and gave me one of his own pocket rosaries in return. It was a small, simple thing, and I didn't fully understand yet how much it would come to mean.
That rosary stayed with me for years, through a faith journey that eventually led me into full communion with the Catholic Church. When I was received, it was already part of the story. It became the model I kept returning to when I made rope rosaries: the proportions, the simplicity, the feel of something worn and prayed with. That friar's gift was the seed of everything that followed.
A rosary made by hand carries something that a manufactured one cannot — the prayers that were said during its making, and the person in mind while the knots were tied.
"To Jesus through Mary — the rosary is one of the oldest roads."
Picking Up the Pieces
Hurricane Laura & the Capital One Building
When Hurricane Laura devastated Lake Charles in August 2020, it left the skyline visibly wounded — and none more so than the Capital One Tower, whose glass facade was shattered across blocks of downtown. Out of that wreckage, a community of artists in Lake Charles came together for a project called Picking Up the Pieces.
The idea was simple and profound: local artists and craftspeople would use fragments of that shattered glass — glass that was instantly recognizable to everyone in Lake Charles as part of their own skyline — to create handmade gifts. Those gifts were sold to raise funds for residents who were less fortunate, particularly the elderly, to put toward their own rebuilding and repairs.
I joined the project making rosaries that incorporated the glass into the design. Each piece carried a piece of the city's suffering and its resilience in the same object. It deepened what I understood about why handmade devotional objects matter: they can hold a story in them, not just a prayer intention.
A Picking up the Pieces rosary incorporating glass from the Capital One Tower
What I Make
Each rosary I make is a little different, shaped by the materials at hand and the person it's intended for. I work primarily with salvaged piano parts — keys, pins, ivory, wire — alongside traditional beads, cord, and chain. I don't list pieces for sale on Etsy or similar platforms. My favorite work is always a commissioned piece made for someone specific.
Knot & Bead
The style the Pope Francis rosary inspired. Worked entirely in cord with knotted decades, sometimes with simple wooden or stone beads, sometimes cord alone. These are prayerful to make and durable to use — suited for a pocket or a purse.
Traditional Linked
Classic linked rosaries using chain, jump rings, and beads. These range from simple and restrained to more elaborate pieces incorporating unusual beads, crucifixes salvaged from piano dampers, or other reclaimed elements. The John Paul II rosary is among my favorites in this style.
Wire-Wrapped "Unbreakable"
The most labor-intensive style — each bead is individually wire-wrapped and connected, making the rosary genuinely resistant to breakage. These are heirloom pieces, built to outlast their maker. Piano wire and salvaged metal hardware often find their way into these.
Every commissioned piece starts as a conversation — about the person, the occasion, and what the rosary should carry.
Commissioned Pieces
For Milestones Worth Marking
I don't maintain an inventory. Every rosary or crucifix I make is either for personal use or for someone specific — and that's how I prefer it. The commissions I find most meaningful are pieces made for someone in the middle of a significant moment: a confirmation, a reception into the Church, a wedding, a silver or golden anniversary of faith, or a loss that calls for something beautiful and lasting to hold onto.
If you have someone in your life approaching one of those moments, I'd welcome the conversation. I'll tell you honestly what I can make, what materials I have on hand, and what would suit the occasion. There's no catalog — just a craftsman and a story to work with.
Because these are made to order, lead time varies. Reach out well ahead of a deadline if you have one, and we can almost always make something work.
Start a ConversationIdeal occasions for a commissioned piece
- Confirmation
- Reception into the Catholic Church (RCIA)
- First Communion
- Ordination or religious profession
- Wedding anniversary milestones
- A loved one facing illness or loss
- A pilgrimage or significant retreat
Crucifixes fashioned from salvaged piano keys and hardware are also available — each one unique, and each one a little reminder that beauty can be reclaimed from what was broken.
Ready to commission a rosary or crucifix? Let's talk.
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