Scale Sakura

Scale maille sakura as hair stick ornament.

Based on the new scale flower design by TRL, with extra rings added on the outer edge out of necessity to stabilize the structure; my bronze rings must be slightly bigger than TRL's size.  This turned out to be very useful for attaching more rings, fringes, beads, etc.

Scales are very addictive, I must admit.  Before the whole scale flower thing, I hadn't thought about making anything with scales.  That was then, this is now.  Interesting how things take on their own paths...  Now I see scales are just like rings, bit flat, with off center, smallish holes compared to typical jump rings; sky's the limit, hahaha!

Specs:  Unanodized aluminum small scales, all 18 swg rings 1.2mm WD, in bright aluminum, anodized aluminum, bronze, and jeweler's brass.  Uh, that's about it; I can't remember the exact ring sizes, so many different sizes here; good way to use up leftover rings though.  Handmade double eye pins out of non-tarnish craft wire, also 1.2mm.  Size 5/0 triangle seed beads in silver-lined mauve.  Final sizes: flower 2" in diameter, full length of ornament 4" from the top connector ring to bottom of the longest fringe.

More pix here.

More Upcycled Aluminum Flowers

There are more aluminum cans than I have time to turn them into decoration for my hair and my garden:-)

I got couple of questions on if recycled aluminum flowers are sturdy enough as hair ornaments or for jewelry. To be honest, I can wear them OK probably because I'm fairly careful with these things. But just for fun, I tested folding aluminum sheet 3 times, kind of like folding table napkins, to form the base of each petal. They are for sure stronger and hold their shapes well even with me swapping rings back and forth to find the right sizes.

The neat thing about making your own petals (or scales, whatever you call them) is you can make them any shape you want! Leaf shape petals make tropical plumeria flowers, and heart shape ones make for lucky 4-leaf clovers, specially if you make them in all green!

Here are how they look as hair clip or barrette. I didn't file the edges on these either because I was so anxious to try out more shapes and more ways to use them, like on hair sticks, hair forks... Besides, I'm really planning to tie these to my trees out in my garden, trying to save some water!!! (hee hee)

Check here for more pix.

Don't just recycle, Upcycle!

Yep, Upcycle. Learn a new word everyday. No, I didn't invent it; read it in the new book Create Colorful Aluminum Jewelry by Helen Harle. Lots of interesting ideas; my kind of book:-)

No, these little flowers are not from the book. They are maille flowers; cute, aren't they? Want to learn how to make them? Check out the pages on The Ring Lord or MAIL. Don't have any scales on hand? Why not improvise? Gather some aluminum cans, pair of steel scissors, hole puncher, some rings and pliers (of course), and experiment to your heart's content!

Here's what I got. Not the best made maille flowers out there, but they are "green" none the less:-) I'm so addicted to these little guys, I got a whole box of soda from Costco, that's 24 cans! And I don't even drink soda!

OK, if you're going to try this out, please mind the sharp edges of cut aluminum. If you can't be bothered with making your own scales, order some from Blue Buddha or The Ring Lord, and have a blast!