Another Squarish-Looking Hanging Thingy

Yes, that's the little brother of my first Japanese 8 in 2 Captive 1 (J8in2C1) in blue fade.

This time, I used anodized aluminum (AA) rings with bright aluminum (BA) as captives.  Same general specs as last one, but the aspect ratios (AR's) are slightly different.

Several things to keep in mind when switching materials:

1.  The wire diameter (WD) can vary from vendor to vendor, even from batch to batch depending on when the rings were acquired.

2.  The WD of AA can be very, very different depending on the colors; yes, even from the same vendor, the same batch; this happens to even the best vendors.  My guess is it has to do with the anodizing process of aluminum, how much of the material is eaten away in order for the different pigments to enter and adhere to the voids in the metal.

3.  Well, this one you maillers out there all know already, the inside diameter (ID) changes greatly from metal to metal; the harder temper ones have greater spring back, giving bigger ID, therefore, bigger AR; and this really throws up the overall structures!!

4.  At the beginning of these shapes, the captive rings tend to pop out when I'm not looking.  Felt like I was constantly running after that escaped ring for both of these projects...  I'd imagine it may help by adding a piece of thin gauge wire to temporarily hold the first few squares together, kind of like using a piece of wire to start those pesky Half Persian weaves.

5.  At last, but not least, the whole square will get tighter and tighter as you go.  Much like many other chainmaille sculptures, the last few rings can make the toughest guys cry....  Well, not me!!  I cheated a little by slightly folding the square to make the last few connections, sort of like "folding the space", ya know;-)  Hee hee, does this sound geeky?  But you get what I mean:-)

Any how, the results are very satisfying!  I think I'll make a few more of these, maybe one in each color!

Yay!!!

...

Tale of Two Leans of Half Persian 3 in 1

Did you ever feel totally confused about the handedness or leans of Half Persian 3 in 1 (HP3in1)?  I did.  I tried many tutorials, videos, read up on books, trying to compare one with another, each time I get turned left and right (yes, pun intended) with occasional success, and I often count those to luck, until when I read through this article by Talia on MAIL really really carefully.  Then I got it!

In the spirit of sharing this with my readers, here's what I documented (as well as in a reply to a question on MWW recently).

----- The basics of HP3in1 with different leans -----

Given HP3in1 has 2 rows, with one row always stacks the same way, you just reverse the other rows when you need a different lean.

That's it!  It's that simple!

To illustrate it, I took some pictures to show how I do it.  I'm right handed and worked these samples from left to right.  When I started, rings of upper row stacked to the back as I built the chain; then starting from the copper ring, I stacked the upper row rings to the front. Then you can pull down (or turn down, or unfold) right side of rings, you get pictures 2, 3, 4 with opposite leans of HP3in1; now you may connect two ends as you wish.

Happy weaving!

or, should it be
Happy learning?!

LOL!

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