For two years, Christy Velez of FlyChica Productions has sold “nameplate rosaries” at hip hop events, to friends and through her website at http://fly.to/flychica. But although Velez’s pieces use the same number of beads found in traditional Roman Catholic rosaries, her $12 beaded creations of plastic and wood come with a twist.

Velez, a 30-year old former break dancer, customizes her peices with customers’ nicknames, such as Virtuoso and Peanut Butter Wolf. Slogans such as “Peace in the ‘Hood.” Hip-hop terms such as “B-girls Stand Proud.” And the one that’s proved most popular: “Mi Vida Loca.”

Sacreligious? Velez- who was raised Methodist but now calls herself a born-again Christian- doesn’t think so. “I think it’s very fashionable, but I don’t think the people who buy them from me are buying them as a fashion statement,” she says.

Velez started making her own beaded necklaces with the Sacred Heart of Jesus dangling from tiny foam frames. One day, someone sug- gested she make a rosary.

Though the making of rosaries a hobby- in her day job, she’s a Web master for a music marketing company- Velez feels it’s sort of a call. She estimates that about 75 percent of her rosary customers have religious faith and that many others are “attempting and making that step to God.”

Velez says she’s picky about what names she’ll add. “I made a general rule not to put anything offensive on them,” she says. Velez refused to add the Spanish word bruja- which means witch- to a customer’s rosary even though the woman claimed it was her given name.