PMP: Half Persian 4-in-1

Don't you just love those big loopy rings in chainmaille:-) They work up so much faster!

This is in 16 ga copper rings, P16 from B3, as part of the PMP kit for Weaving Silver DVD, Volume I, which uses a starter patch of European 4-in-1. Couple of sites talked about this, but I couldn't understand any till the video shows exactly how it borrows the parallel pattern in E_4-1's edge rings. Proves once again, a picture is worth a terabytes of words. btw, after working on thick gauge steel and titanium rings in last few weeks, I almost forgot how much softer the base metals are. Sure is nice to wake up in the morning without stiff arms...

Practice Makes Perfect: European 4-in-1

Finally went thru volume one of Spiderchain's video; lots to take in; watched it more than a few times; wish I could be in her live class to learn all the basics...

Anyway, here's my first PMP work (that is "practice makes perfect", not "project management professional", that would be boring...) A simple European 4-in-1 bracelet in H18 brass. So lacy, lays flat on the wrist, and holds its shape well. This bracelet was made following the instructions on the video. Next time, I'll try the CGMaille method, seems faster; I'll take any extra second I can save.

Just in case you watched last week's SNL, you may recognize this is the same pattern as the red/orange color chainmaille headdress the-whats-her-name was wearing... I found this blog entry that says it all :-) Yep, you could go crazy with this simple weave.

Caterpillar Necklace

Take 2 of the Centipede pattern from The Chain Maille Lady.

This time the rings are smaller AR than my first try, so the crystals stay in place. I skipped the no. 15 seed beads between the crystals; doesn't seem to need them in this necklace; the length of all bicones together is already pushing the maximum outside curve.

As a bracelet, the pattern stays put most of the time. But as a necklace, it doesn't seem to have enough width to remain in one direction. Although at 16.5", it wears more like a choker, which makes it somewhat manageable. I'm not sure about this exact pattern for a long necklace...

Specs:
Rings are E18 in bright aluminum from B3; WD is 1.2 mm, ID is 3.6 mm, AR is 3.1, takes about 26.25 RPI; these rings come in a 500-ring pack for $9.50, so relatively inexpensive for doggie necklace. The crytals are 6 mm Swarovski bicones in 6 colors, 10 of each in Dark Indigo, Jet Hematite 2xAB, Crystal Metallic Blue, Montana, Crystal Medium Vitrail, and Black Diamond 2xAB, for a total of 60 crystals. The colors are not showing well in these pictures; they do sparkle a lot under the sun. As to the toggle, it's recycled from my Orbital bracelet, which is now ready for its "second incarnation" :-) The whole thing took me about 6 hours to finish; not sure why so much more than the first one. Maybe I should try it one more time, for good luck, as Spider would say.

Now I just need a french bulldog to model the necklace ....

Dragonscale

Learn something new everyday, or every other day when it comes to Dragonscale. This is essentially 2 sets of European 4-in-1 trapped by each other. Sounds easy enough, but the execution is a totally different story.

I first read about this weave on CGMaille; its difficulty is listed at 2 out of 4. One would think this should be a no-brainer. Not true. This bracelet took me 2 days of neck-braking, eye-crossing, mind-boggling, intense, hard labor, not to mention more bruises on my hands. But the end result is worth it! I've not made anything so substantial yet still so comfortable on the wrist.

Specs:
2 sizes of stainless steel rings: The large rings are from C&T Designs, 18 ga and 1/4" ID, I measured them at 1.2 mm WD and 6.3 mm ID. Note: I don't find this size on their website at the moment; not sure if they are out now, or stop carrying them. Very nice rings, sure hope they are just out for now.... The small rings are from The Ring Lords, 19 ga and 7/32" ID, I measured them at 1 mm WD and 3.9 mm ID. Body of bracelet is 7 rings wide, 47 rows long from point to point at center ring, making the total length at 6 1/4", 1/4" in thickness. Since each row is really two rows trapped by each other, so it's really 94 rows. The closure is 2 pairs of simple sterling silver toggles from my stash; way under sized and out of place, desperately needs improvement. I was so exhausted by the time I finished the body, just wanted to close it off and call it a day. So, there.

New toys

Goody, goody! Nothing beats getting new toys! These are from B3 (Blue Buddha Boutique).

The duck bill pliers are a big help in pre-closing tough rings, like stainless steel, titanium. Wish I had them before starting the dragon scale bracelet; but better late than never.

The digital caliper is great. It does inner and outer diameters, inches and millimeters, takes the guess work out of ring sizes.

Now the video by Spiderchain. Wow! This is excellent; I haven't finished watching the whole thing yet, already got so much out of the first 2 chapters! I highly recommend it, so much so that I'll go back to order Volume 1 too. Almost like learning directly from the master herself, almost.

Another Half Persian... This time, in Titanium

By now, I must have made at least half a dozen Half Persians, be it 3-in-1 or 4-in-1. I'm glad they all found good "homes":-) But I still don't have one for myself.... until now, after a tough (and bloody) battle with these "Rings of the Gods!"

Just for the body of the bracelet, this HP 4-in-1 took me over 6 hours of hard labor, all because of these little stubborn titanium jump rings. They are not kidding about this material is not for beginners. Titanium rings are tough, brittle, very springy. Aligning the ring ends is nothing compared to trying to close the gap. Good thing with HP, half the rings can be pre-closed before starting the weave. Can't imagine doing a JPL with these rings....

Specs:
Rings are saw cut titanium from The Ring Lords, 18 ga, 7/32" ID; I measured them to be 1.2 mm thick, 6.1 mm ID, exactly as listed on their website. Body of bracelet is 6 1/2"; about 13.5 RPI; total length including closure is just under 7 1/2". The little butterfly toggle is store bought, a good buy from San Gabriel Bead Company's last quarterly sale! Don't know what material it is... probably not anything silver-ish, but very cute, and just the right weight and tone to go with titanium's light gray finish.

So, what have I learned about titanium jump rings? They are damn hard to work with!!! And they are light weight, yet very strong, corrosion resistent, no worry about scratches, won't tarnish, but cost more than twice of stainless steel rings, almost half of niobium rings. So why titanium rings (other than the "cool" factor)? I'd say, if I want some muted colors on the rings, Ti is the less expensive way to go than Nb. Otherwise, I'd probably stick with stainless steel or silver.

Full Persian

Sometimes known as Foxtail, an interesting pattern. For the longest time, I thought this is a variation of Boxchain... Silly me.

It's not a difficult weave to learn, given there's tons of info on the web and in books, magazines. But none is as good as the video on The Beading Gem's Journal. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be like a terabyte worth of words.

Specs:
Stainless steel rings are from C&T Designs, 18 ga round, 1/4" ID; I measured them at about 1 mm thick, 6.3 mm ID; takes about 20 RPI for this FP 6-in-1. S hook is hand forged from 12 ga Argentium Sterling silver, salvaged from a failed experiment. Being green is a must when it comes to silver.

Caterpillar Bracelet

This is a chainmaille pattern from the Chain Maille Lady. Very cute, and rather quick to work up. I adapted a few changes to fit my stash of beads, etc.

Rings are stainless steel from The Ring Lord, 19 ga (1 mm), with 5/32" ID; crystals are SW 5040 in 8 mm Crystal 2xAB, spaced by size 11 Japanese seed beads in hematite. Store bought toggle (just a prototype, no need to fuss over the closure:-)

Joanna, what do you think? Will it look good on a Frenchie?

JPL

Jens Pind Linkage, or JPL for short.

CGMaille listed this weave as level 3 out of 4... Any way, it looks so nice, I so want to learn how to do it; after many sleepless nights of Googling, YouTubing (is that a word?), I think I finally got it.

This is my first try. Rings are from C&T Designs. Gorgeous rings! Almost impossible for me to work with though! These 16 gauge stainless steel square wire rings can be weapons; nearly killed me the first time I tried to open one. These rings sat on my table for over 8 months before I gathered enough courage, and put on a pair of leather gloves (it's a good thing, trust me) last night... and voila!

Specs:
Stainless steel square wire rings, 16 gauge, body of bracelet is 6.75", with the toggle makes it 8" in total length. Toggle is store bought (from the best bead store ever - San Gabriel Bead Company), connected with 2 sets of graduating sizes of smaller stainless steel round rings, just so that the bar can go thru the circle, if I wiggle it right.

Orbital Rings

The very first time I saw these hammered rings on Step-by-Step Wire, I wanted to try them! I like the shape, the idea, the method, the unlimited use of the technique, not to mention my long time obsession with the asteroid belt of Saturn, and the fact I already ran out 18 ga wire and anything thicker. Being able to build something solid with 20 ga wire works perfectly for me.

These rings are surprising easy to make, and they let out lots of frustration, if you got them... The magazine showed the rings used in a necklace; I didn't have time to make that many rings; so here's a shorter version as a bracelet.

Each ring comes out differently of course since it's all hand wrapped and hammered. But I love the way the wire curves show up like thin ribbons. I specially like the toggle bar, which is my own design (if you can call that a design); it reminds me the bundled scrolls from traditional Japanese designs.

I'm thinking of other shapes, triangles, squares, whatever! Maybe a matching pair of earrings, and finger rings too. Can you tell I like it a lot?! :-)

More views here.

Bead Cap

This is a guess work.

I've been seeing many wire wrapped bead caps; they are intricate and unique. My favorite so far being the ones by Iza Malczyk! They are absolutely fantastic!

Since I had played with basket weaving before, I thought to give it a try before reading the tutorial. Here's my first try: 18g copper wire as frame, wrapped with 26g thin wire, capping a wooden bead. What do you think?

Here are 2 more images:

on the back

and from the top.

2 New CM Bracelets

After 3 months away from chainmaille, I'm still addicted, more so than ever.

This time, I'm trying out Niobium and stainless steel rings.  I read a lot about different tempers and materials of wire, but nothing prepares me for actually working with them.  These are both 18ga rings, 1/4" ID, making them about 5 in AR.  But they're from 2 different companies; by the look and feel, the Nb rings are about 18swg, and the stainless steel rings are closer to 18awg. The temper of Nb rings is just under half hard compared to dead soft sterling silver; not too difficult to work with, I get used to them quickly.  But the stainless steel rings are definitely more springy than half hard, gave my arms a good workout.  Another nice thing about stainless steel rings: They don't mar as easily.  I got these rings from C&T Designs; they're saw cut, smooth and clean; will definitely try their Nb rings next time.

OK, the specs:

The box chain bracelet is made of stainless steel rings, with a hand forged 12awg Argentium sterling silver clasp

 (I don't have any stainless steel wire on hand; might as well, anything thicker than 18ga stainless steel is out of my league, for now.)

The Half Persian 4-in-1 bracelet is made of Nb rings, with a hand forged 16ga Nb clasp.

Both are 8 1/2" long.

Dave, I hope they make your day:-)

More images here.  C&C welcome.

Byzantine

Since I'm still out of thick wires, I thought this is a good time to try a round of all the chainmaille weaves I've learned so far with 18 or smaller gauge wires. Here is the first weave I learned, Byzantine.

About a year ago when I saw this weave for the first time, I thought it's pretty but too much for me to tackle. I downloaded a tutorial but could never get thru more than 3 steps, very depressing, imagine this was listed as a beginner weave ...

But not until I read more about it, went thru more than a dozen tutorials, YouTube videos, and books, the light bulb finally came on. Yes, I'd say this sure is a beginner weave, now I can do it while watching TV! This dainty bracelet was made of 18 ga SS wire, AR is 3, too small for the traditional 2-connector, so I went with 1-connector. Used about 6' of wire, final length 7". Oh, and the clasp is 14 ga SS, a test piece from a few years back.

More images here.

"CA" is for Chainmaille Anonymous.

"My name is Daisy, and I'm a chainmaille addict." And this picture is the proof! (Mind you, there's one more doggie necklace that Mandy is already wearing, so I don't have a picture of that necklace in here...)

For the last 2 weeks, I've been reading and experimenting with more chainmaille patterns. There is an enormous amount of info on the web, from photos, tutorials, videos on YouTube, resources for materials, just incredible! One can get lost in all this (and I did.)

So far, I already ran thru my stash of 14 and 16 ga silver wires, and very little 12 left. Although 18 thru 22 are still in good supply, but I thought it'd be nice to add some colors. Unfortunately (and fortunately), my color craft wires are all 22 and thinner. To make up for the thickness, I twisted lots of them. A LOT! Any way, here's what I've made so far.

This is another Kingsmaille with 18 ga gold color wire and 3 colors of 22 ga blue and green twisted wires. Very oceany. AR is 9, kind of loopy; total length 17", sits just over collar bones. Originally, it's to be Tango's necklace. But when I tried it on him, his thick double coat just proved to be too much. Besides, it's probably not sturdy enough as a doggie necklace ... So I added a few more inches and decided to keep it for myself!!

OK, enough Kingsmaille for now. Off to learn some new pattern. These are Half Persians. Boy, talk about addicting! I made a small segment of HP 3-in-1, and I was so excited that I went on to try HP 4-in-1. Definitely takes more time than 3-in-1, but looks really cool! This ring is a small 4-in-1 with 18 ga silver and copper color craft wires.

More images here.

So now I'm getting a feel for HP4-in-1, I thought this'll be a nice choice for a doggie necklace, it's rather sturdy even with just 18 ga. But by now, I also ran out of 18 ga craft wire. A few poking arounds on the net gave me the idea of using aluminum wire. It's cheap, and I can probably find it at HomeDepot, saving me a trip to the beads store which has historically been expensive no matter how I cut it.

This is Tango's necklace, 16", 18 ga bright aluminum and twisted 26 ga Artistic Wires in shades of blue and green and some gold. All rings are about 5.5 AR. This is the first time I use aluminum wire; HomeDepot carries several gauges and tempers; I got the soft one, and it's real soft, almost no springback; cuts very easily (mars easily too). For small rings in HP 4-in-1, they'll do.

I was on a roll. Besides, I twisted and cut a whole bunch of color wires; a good exercise for my arms. Here's the necklace for Jimbo, 22.5"; wonder if this may be too long ... haven't tried either on them yet. Any how, I love these rainbow colors. So bright and cheery; sure would be nice to try the same again with silver and anodized niobium wires. Well, maybe after I get a new contract, but then I may not have as much time for my jewelry, humm ...

More image here.

And lastly, but not least. My first try of the Stepping Stone pattern, and I REALLY like it! I first saw this in CWJ 2009, then it led me to this totally awesome site. Wow, just blown away! I knew about Japanese weave for a while, was never too interested to try; but this completely changed my mind. After days of googling, found more info on this pattern, here's my version of the bracelet. Made with 18 ga aluminum wire, 3 mm ID, 18 ga copper wire, 5 mm ID, and 16 ga brass wire, 8 mm ID. From start to end, took me 6+ hours, including some searching around the house for scrap brass wires (it's raining today, don't feel like going to the stores ...) I improvised the toggle and the connectors for the toggle bar, which took me quite a while to fit just right. The goal is to make the toggle in a way that looks part of the bracelet, and don't look too out of place even if it ends up on top. I'm wearing this to sleep tonight:-)

More images here.