My husband recently asked me to rebuild his 30-year-old rosary, which originally had some unidentified black colored material for the Aves and carved-wood Paters (also dyed black). This led to a discussion of the aesthetics of rosaries for women vs. rosaries for men. He thought I should make plainer rosaries for men, since most of my rosaries are ‘pretty’, and he suspected that men would prefer plain rather than embellished.

I have a couple of rosaries in my shop that I think of as ‘men’s’ rosaries, but I started thinking about all the beautiful natural stones that are more subtle and ‘masculine’ than the typical crystals or faceted stones. I also started thinking about birthstones for men. There are some birthstones that seem equally suited to men and women (amethysts and garnet come to mind), but there are others that seem too feminine. I doubt that most men born in October want pink crystals mimicking pink tourmaline, or pink opals. On the other hand, natural tourmaline also includes some very masculine colors such as black, deep purply-red, grey-green, and tan/gold: 

So I compiled a chart of birthstones through the ages, including both Hebrew and Christian traditions, and including several ethnic groups that have their own birthstone traditions.

There is a good deal of cross-fertilization between the traditions, but one thing I noticed is that in the traditional birthstone lists there are many natural stones of a more masculine or earthy bent, some of which I have already used in rosaries:

red net jasper 

fire agate 

aventurine

Indian agate  

What do men want in a rosary? What is appealing and helpful? Would your husband/fiance/father/son/grandson like a rosary in a ‘masculine’ birthstone? I would love to hear what men and women think about men’s rosaries in particular and how my work could better serve in that area–please leave a comment!