chain maille

I've been chain mailling again.  Same pattern as I've done in the past here, here and here.  I know, I need to branch out!

This silver one was made for a lovely friend/stalker for her birthday. She's 52 now, don't let her try to tell you otherwise.

The photo above shows the new bracelet (on top) with my bracelet that I've been wearing a lot.  See the difference?  I must have very grimy skin.

While I had the Gizmo out, I thought I might as well whip up a red one for me.  Such a shame I don't have any matching lobster clasps.

chain maille

I'm going all repetitive again ladies, no not more tea-light holders, more chain maille bracelets!  And when I say "more", I mean "one".  Oh dear, this post isn't going well so far is it?  I'll start again.

I made a chain maille bracelet!  It's the byzantine weave again, like I made here and here.  I see I titled both those posts "Chain maille" too.  So at least I'm consistent with my repetitive behaviour!  This time I used blue wire.  That was startlingly obvious, wasn't it?

Bit of an arty shot of the three together.  I've been wearing the copper and silver ones together and wanted some coloured ones to go with them.  I made the blue first as I have a lot of blue clothes.

I haven't worn a single blue item since I made it...  I have more wire to make more colours of bracelets, but I have other things that need doing first!  Anyway, this blue bracelet fought me all the way.  The silver and copper ones were nice and easy and quick.  This blue one was a pain in the arse.  The jump rings kept falling on the floor and they wouldn't open or they were opened the wrong way or the pliers slipped...  It was just frustrating from start to end.  Interestingly though*, I made 2 more jump rings than I'd need.  I mean that I made a load of jump rings on my Gizmo, no counting or anything and when I'd finished the bracelet I have 2 left over.  

I'll get my coat...


*OK, OK, so it wasn't even slightly interesting.  But I tried.

chain maille

Another masterpiece of a title there.  I don't know if you remember I went to a class to learn to do chain maille recently?  We learnt the Byzantine weave and I made a silver bracelet.  I bought some more 1mm wire after the Josephine Knot class the other week and got to work.

I bought some copper wire and used my gizmo to make the coils before snipping them apart to make the jump rings.  SO much quicker than the jump ring maker we used in class.  I'd also bought some brass wire and started making jump rings with that first, but I didn't check I was using the right mandrel and they turned out too big.  I didn't have enough brass wire to start again, so I need to find a weave with 5.5mm ID jump rings!

I've been wearing the copper and silver bracelets together and I love them.  I'd have loved a brass one too!  I've ordered some wire from ebay, and I also bought a new book - Classic Chain Mail Jewelry.  Now I can't wait for my wire to turn up so I can tryout some new weaves!  

chain maille

I took last Thursday off to attend another class at the Bead Shop Nottingham.  I felt really bad considering I'd gone home with a migraine on Tuesday, but if it was any consolation to anyone (it wasn't to me), I still had the headache.  I've still got the headache now (I'm writing this on Sunday - I hope I don't still have the headache when this publishes, but I wouldn't be that surprised if I did).

This time the class was chain maille.  I've been wanting to try this for ages but it looked hard, fiddly and very time consuming.

Fiddly it is, hard and time consuming it isn't.  It took me about 2 and a half hours to make this bracelet, and that included making all the jump rings.

This is a Byzantine weave, a fairly basic one.  It's fiddly at first but it does get pretty quick.  Little equipment is needed.   We used a jump ring maker in the class, but I'd use my coiling gizmo at home, some flush cutters to cut the rings and two pairs of chain nosed pliers (i.e. flat) to twist the rings open and shut.  Oh, and a paper clip so you know which end to work on!

I love it.  I've been wearing it and it's so light.  I'm not sure why that was a surprise, it wasn't heavy when I was making it!

Yep, I'll be doing this again, perhaps with a few different weaves, I've already found a pattern in one of my many craft books!

I'm linking up to Fiona's New to Me challenge.