Oops Chainmaille Finger Ring in Rainbow Anodized Niobium

Took me long enough to finally finish this ring!!

Do you remember the coil of pure niobium from last post?  Right, that's what went into this finger ring :-)

6 rows high, 22 columns around, several anodizing dips from 15 volt to 107, zipped up end to end, and voila!

Niobium gives out brilliant colors without etching, is hypoallergenic, super friendly for the majority of the skin sensitivity.  I specially like using it in chainmaille for its relatively harder temper and nice medium weight.

Did I mention I like colors? (hee hee...)

This baby belongs to my dear friend Joy M.  Think I'll be making more of these, because it's so ..... 

what's the word?

Addictive!  LOL!

.......

Oops Chainmaille Finger Ring

Soft, very tactile and conforming, yet strong and durable!

I have long favored Oops as my number one weave when it comes to making a chainmaille ring most representative of the unique quality of maille.

Yes, that's over 180 tiny little jump rings, opened and closed by me, with my trusted pairs of Xuron pliers, until my fingers and wrists are exhausted, eyes crossed....

No, this is not the most ring hungry project, but it is my pride and joy for the neatly lined up pattern and perfectly balanced weight distribution!  Not many other chainmaille finger rings offer such strength as well as a low profile.

Fingers itchy for a DIY?  Other than joining the ends, this is not a difficult one to make, just rather time consuming.  These are all bright aluminum rings in 20 awg, 3/32" ID.  Have fun!

More pix?  Visit this photo album!

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Chainmaille Watch Band in Oops Weave

I've long had an obsession with watch bands, handmade watch band, that is, of course!

Back in my bead weaving days, I made a free form (mostly peyote-based) watch band, in many shades and shapes of blue beads.  That tickled me for a very long time!  Got it?  A long "time"?!! :-)

Fast forward.  Watch bands have also been a popular application (hey, an app!) for chainmaille.  Those tiny rings are perfect attachment to any watch face with mini tension bars for changing watch bands.

Just about any basic chainmaille weaves can be used for watch bands, with the key being a weave that is dense but low profile, flexible but sturdy.  As I searched and researched, the winner in my book is still my all time favorite, Oops!  AKA, European 4 in 1 Unbalanced.

Oops weave is very fluid, fabric-like, yet very strong to stand up to daily wear and tear.

Speaking of daily wear, for the band closure, I selected a 5-point tube slider for easy on and off.  The slider also has a small magnet built inside the ends of the tube to help "guide and attract" the opposite end in place.

Oh, and I love this nice and BIG watch face, with BIG numbers.  Yes, it measures over 1 1/2" across.  With all this surface area, it's only 1/4" in thickness.  Not ultra thin, but thin and light weight enough to fit comfortably over the wrist.

The total length for the watch and band is right at 7", with the Oops band at 1" wide, and the tube slider closed at 1 1/8" wide.  The Oops band can be slightly lengthened at 3/16" increment to fit a bigger wrist.

The metal used for the chainmaille band is bright aluminum, a light weight, no maintenance metal.  The material of the tube slider is plated in platinum color.  The watch face has a stainless steel case, acrylic window, with quartz movement.

For complete view of the watch/band, please visit my Picasa album here.

Sterling Silver Oops Finger Ring

One of my all time favorite chainmaille patterns: Oops:-) But ahh, there is nothing "oops" about this ring!  Precision-crafted from bare sterling wire, hand coiled and cut with a jeweler's saw into hundreds of tiny jump rings, then woven together to create this awesome ring. Talk about labor of love!


Unlike most commercially produced finger ring, chainmaille rings have the advantage of having a bold presence without the weight.  What is most unique about this ring is in the Oops pattern, where each jump ring interlocks its neighboring rings at such angles that produces the strongest hold with the thinnest ring shank/wall.

Enough tech talk:-) Here are the ring specs: The ring is size 5 1/4, measures at 7/16 inch wide, 1/8 inch thick, weighing at tad over 1/3 troy oz.

Please visit this album for all photos of this lovely chainmaille finger ring.

More Oops Rings

Five more, to be exact! :-)

I started out wanting to fix my first Oops ring so that it's more of a "common" size. So that took a while to take apart the original, reduced 1 column, then split it horizontally into two, and this is where I started having lots of "Whaaa...?" moments.

Learning how to do Oops went really fast for me; that usually also meant I never fully understood how it's supposed to be.  Ah, but nothing like repairing a weave to truly let it sink in.

And when it did (that's aka. the light bulb moment), it finally made sense for me; then it happened, a temporary insanity set in, I made one in sterling 20 gauge (awg), then a 22, both in saw cut rings by me:-) Then I noticed I have some bright aluminum rings, WD 0.75mm, from TRL, that are perfect size for Oops; so that's another one (we'll call this a prototype:-)

But the last one is my favorite: Over 7 feet of 24 gauge 1/2 hard sterling, wound on 1.6mm mandrel, then saw cut into tiny ant-size rings, woven together for the most comfortable ring I've ever made or seen!

I lost track of time in making this ring; but it's about 4 long evenings and nights, lots of searching for dropped rings, several 'huh" moments, and a few times swearing, not to mention some unavoidable silver saw dust that may be lodged in my lungs ...

But this is my pride and joy! Light weight and sturdy, slides on my finger with ease but won't fall out when I wash my hands. Giving myself a big pat on the back. Good job, Daisy:-)
For more photos, please check out here.

Oops!

That's the name of this weave, Oops, although I'd say there's nothing oops about it; in fact, it's now my current favorite weave, so addictive, can't stop once started, that's how this bracelet got to 8 1/2" long...

Oops is the a.k.a. name of European 4-in-1 Unbalanced.  It's best looking when done in tight ratio with fine rings.  It's also obviously a very ring-hungry weave, and more time consuming than most other European family weaves.  But the textile feel of the final work is well worth the effort.

Since I couldn't stop "Oopsing" (is that a word?), and I didn't have enough rings for another bracelet, so I made a finger ring to match:-)  Having joined a few other weaves, I was prepared to do battle on joining Oops while I found it surprisingly easy!  Almost like zipping up two sides of Peyote stitches, the rings that are supposed to meet up met up without any couching or coercing from me.  The only thing I'd say I would do over is using a finer gauge of rings which should allow for a closer size of finger ring.  As this ring goes, it's wee bigger than I wanted.  But to reduce it, it'll have to lose 2 columns of rings since Oops kind of works in pairs when joined end to end, and that would make the ring too small for me.

Now only if I had a professional mannequin hand display for my work...  My own hand is not doing justice to this fine set of "Oops":-)

Specs:

All bright aluminum rings from TRL, 18SWG (WD 1.2mm), ID 5/32" (measured at 4.18mm), AR ~3.48 which is at the high end of AR for Oops.  Bracelet measures at 1" wide and 8 1/2" long, including the sterling silver slider clasp.  The finger ring is 7/8" long, and about size 9.