About
Made by one pair of hands
Every piece is made by hand, a bead at a time. The beads, the medals and the crosses are bought in, and this site will not tell you what they are made of, because Claudia cannot verify it. What is made here is the piece itself: fifty-nine links and more, each one turned and closed by hand.
Each bead sits on its own wire link, cut, turned and closed with pliers before the next one is started. There is no factory behind this site, no team and no restock schedule — one pair of hands, working a single strand at a time. Because every link is turned by hand, no two pieces come out identical.
Claudia grew up in Contenças, in central Portugal. She works now in London.
The name
C’ORA is two pieces joined by an apostrophe: C, and ora. Ora is Portuguese for pray — the imperative, the form you would use speaking to someone you love.
It was not a word before this. It is the shortest way I have found to say what these are for: a piece made to hold your prayer — to sit in your hands while it is said, and to keep it afterwards.
What stays the same on every piece
- Hand-wired on individually turned links, never threaded on cord or chain.
- Described by colour and form only — never by a metal or a stone that cannot be verified.
- Made singly by hand, so no two are ever identical — a piece can be made again on request, never the same twice.
- Repairable, link by link, for as long as it is carried.
Read more about how a piece is made or what happens after it arrives.