One Night at Denny's

This little guy begs for attention! Not only bursting with colors, but jingling like crazy too!

Yep, that's the name of the weave, One Night at Denny's. No clue how it came about, but sure is fun to make. I think the half-, semi-Trizantine knots look like little pots of flowers, see them?

I named this bracelet "One very jingly Night at Denny's" because it's crazily jingly. These bells are small, but high decibel. Too much for you? Well then take a look at the "light" version and the "quiet" version in here.

Specs:

All rings are 18 SWG, 1.2mm, from Blue Buddha's sample packs; they're great! I get so much use out of them. The big connector rings are bronze; "flower pots" are anodized aluminum, AR 4.1; bells are connected "Shaggy Loops" style with jeweler's brass rings. I don't know what material the bells are, just that they jingle all right.

And last but not least, the split tail Fish Hook is my own design, out of 16 SWG Nb wire, hand forged then anodized.

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Bath Time!!

Ducky and Bubbles! Bring back fond memories of childhood, don't they?

Bubbles weave is simple, fun, and quick to work up. If you can connect jump rings, you can do this. Just like many other basic weaves, this opens up lots of room for playing with variations, such as colors!

Speaking of colors, my camera is not doing justice to the beautiful colors of anodized Niobium rings. You really want to see these in person. Brilliant, mesmerizing, colors of rainbow, puts a smile on every face:-)

Specs:

Almost the same as Jellybean Barrels, large rings are Niobium, 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, AR 5.5; smaller rings are stainless steel from the sample pack of base metal rings of Blue Buddha; and the clasp is hand-forged and anodized by none others than yours truly out of 16 gauge natural Nb wire from TRL.

How about some more photos? Yeah? Click here!

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Jellybeans on Parade! Barrels of them:-)

Yep, that's the name of this weave, Jellybean Barrels! Or, to be exact, it's the Barrels version of Jellybean On Parade. Talk about boat loads of fun, isn't it? Just the name along puts everyone in a party mood:-) btw, this weave is aka Crow Chain; um, I'll stay with the parade for now:-)

OK, specs:

The inner 2x2 chain is 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, ID 6.6 mm, AR 5.5, stainless steel rings from C&T Designs; orbitals are same size Niobium rings from TRL; sterling silver toggle bought at San Gabriel Bead Company.

Check out more pix here.

Scary Weave

Relax, nothing scary here, just 2 new bracelets made in Scary Weave pattern. This is in response to Maillers Worldwide's July 2010 challenge.

I had wanted to try the weave for some time now; earlier attempts didn't go far; I had a hard time placing the connector rings. Base on the tutorial, I think it's meant to form a 3-tier step up or down, depending on how you look at it. But some photos of finished work out there show either a peak/valley style or multiple-ring-connection. I don't know which is which... They all look nice to me:-) Mine followed exact steps of the tutorial, and I must say, it's easier said than done. The Honey Bee connection was much easier.

Any who, here are the specs:

Copper and stainless steel square wire rings from C&T, 20-K, 0.8 mm x 0.8 mm, AR sized for HP4-1, so about 5ish. The stainless steel rings' AR seems wee bit smaller than copper; my attempt to make a "copper orbital on one side, steel the other" didn't work... it only flexed to the steel side. Photographed here is the remake on the copper/steel mix; it only comes up half a unit shorter than the all copper one.

RPI: This one measured 3 units per inch, so that makes it 21 rings per inch.

The heart clasp together with the catch rings are hand forged from 1.3 mm copper wire. I'm getting to be quite good at this:-)

The matching earrings came from extra units of the all copper bracelet; the ear wires are from 1.0 mm Niobium, handmade then anodized.

Enjoy the slide show!

W.I.B.U.T.

What I've been up to:

Most of these haven't been photographed yet. I moved on from one to next, wanting to test out as many weaves as I can; but there are sssooooooo many out there; it's like what they say: So many weaves, so little time:-)

More details to come soon; for now, just a quick glance:

• Shaggy loops (lower left corner) - bracelet and matching earrings in copper, brass, bright aluminum
• Persephone (lower right) - bracelet, with hand forged infinity toggle, in copper
• Tetra Orbs (upper leftmost) - 2 pairs of earrings in bright aluminum with Swarovski cube crystals

from here onto the right:

• Japanese Lace - 2 bracelets in stainless steel and anodized niobium
• GSG-3 rows - bracelet in natural niobium and matching earrings in natural titanium
  
• Half Persian (HP) 4in1 - bracelet in anodized niobium
• HP 4in1 - bracelet in anodized titanium
• HP 3in1 (top row, above all bracelets) - finger ring in anodized niobium
• HP 4in1 (top row, above all bracelets) - hair clip decoration in anodized niobium
  
• HP 3in1 Sheet 5 - 2 bracelets, 20 gauge and 18 gauge bright aluminum
• Oval (or Persian Dragonscale) - bracelet in 18 ga BA
• Roundmaille - bracelet in 18 ga BA
• Turkish Round - 2 bracelets, 18 ga and 16 ga BA
• Helm (or Parallel) - 18 ga BA
• Dragonscale - 18 ga BA
• JPL-3 - 16 ga BA
• JPL What-If variations - 2 bracelets, with 18 ga BA interspersed by larger ID anodized aluminum rings
• Double Spiral Half Byzantine + 1 - bracelet in 18 ga stainless steel square wire rings (this name is quite a mouthful, however the weave turned out like little flower basket, very cute!)
  

More Hourglass: Dodecahedron and Truncated Icosahedron

I was already plenty giddy with an Hourglass tetrahedron; then I read Ferrousknight's tutorial on M.A.I.L., and saw the photos in the gallery. Forget food and sleep, I've got to make myself some of these!!


Dodecahedron is a fun and rather quick one to make. I forget how many rings... only that I had to disassemble my first HG tetrahedron, reused the rings here; and then it's still not enough... Finally had to pull out my stash of 18 gauge copper wire to make up the rest. Ideal AR s/b about 7.5 to 8.3; my copper rings went way over that; can't find the right size mandrel around my house; this is the best I had at the time.

Stats:
Bright aluminum rings are R18 (that's 18swg, 11/32" ID) ALUM from Blue Buddha, 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, actual ID 9.5 mm, AR ~8. Copper rings are made from 18 gauge wire, WD 1.1 mm, ID about 10 mm, yeah, I know, bit too big, that's why they all have 3-ring connectors, compared to 2 on the BA rings.
Pretty neat, wouldn't you say?

OK, here's the truncated icosahedron. I had to google around to learn what that is.

Here's one made with Hourglass units. Looks complicated? Not really, once I got the concept, it's rather simple and elegant, almost zen.

So my hand cut rings leave lots room for improvement, the AR's were all over the place, copper and brass wires have lots spring back, and the last roll of aluminum wire was so weak that it kinked like every other inch.

But I had loads of fun! Believe me when I say practice makes perfect; this little boy has over 500 rings! (something like 540 in total, according to the math, but don't hold me to it....)

Now I'm obsessed. I'm making a chainmaille soccer ball, in black and white rings, yay!!!

Hourglass Tetrahedron

I did it! I did it! Took me a long, long time, but I finally made it! My first Hourglass Tetrahedron!

Can't say I remember all the steps, but it's here! Many thanks to FalloftheNoldor's video clip on YouTube; I must have replayed the clip a zillion times before completing this cutie.

UPDATE for ring stats:
All one size rings, 16 gauge swg, bright aluminum, with actual WD 1.6 mm, ID 10.10 mm, AR ~6.31;
or simply: Size T16 BA from Blue Buddha.

Now it's time for dissecting it, really understanding how it's put together. I would LOVE to make a garden ornament out of copper tubing, yeah!!

So cute! Can't wait to show them off:-)

Quasi Lotus Flower

Not exactly the same Lotus Flower as was in the tutorial, so I named it Quasi Lotus Flower. Another interesting application of Helm pattern, Lotus Flower takes just one Helm circle, squashed and embellished to your heart's content! I followed first half of the tutorial, then was lost, then I improvised ... Now I'm not sure if I can remember what I did ...

But the specs are simple:
Same ring sizes as the main body of Helm Sphere (because they're from the same left over practice kit:-) No zipping necessary.

Helm Sphere

Helm Sphere is 2 concave Helm circles zipped together. This picture shows one of the Helm circle; copper and brass rings zipped the 2nd circle on the other side. Inside the sphere is a hot pink crystal bead, not really propping up anything (the sphere holds its own shape well enough), just to add color and interests.

I added 2 sets of connector rings to the top and bottom of the sphere; one set is shown in this picture as the horizontal rings right in the center. They are not totally necessary, but make it easier to hang off a chain as a pendant.

Specs:

Rings are all 18 gauge (WD 1.2 mm); the 2 circles are in bright aluminum in 2 sizes: 4.75 mm and 7.4 mm; the stitch rings are copper and jeweler's brass with ID 3 mm; all rings are left over from the mixed metal practice kit by Blue Buddha. The bead inside is 10 mm Swarovski crystal in hot pink with AB. I followed this tutorial from M.A.I.L., a fun one to experiment, and I DID:-)

Chainmaille Donut

Since the anodizer is still totally taking over my kitchen counter, had to find other ways to get me some food:-)

This started out as a test piece of double Vipera Berus. I first saw this weave by Clever Wench on Maillers Worldwide, and thought it'd be too much for me; then I read her tutorial... Bing! A light bulb moment! What a fun weave! But I didn't have enough rings to make a bracelet; soooo..... after 10 rows, I zipped it up and called it a ..... donut (was so hungry last night)!

Specs:
18 gauge unanodized Nb rings from TRL (SXNO1814), WD 1.2 mm, ID 6.6 mm, AR 5.5, will do for a normal bracelet, bit too tight for this donut; or maybe I should have taken it to 12 rows before zipping it up? The last 2 rings took me forever; you can tell in the pictures, the ones with big gaps ... Oh well, they're locked in, not going anyway now.

So, should I color it, or not? Rainbow sprinkles are my favorite donuts.

Technicolor Bumble Bees

See what an anodizer can do to my plain old Niobium honey bee bracelet! The two extra links are now matching earrings!

Just in the rare chance that someone may be interested to know how to color these critters: After the bracelet is all done, fold and hang the whole thing on a short piece of Nb rod to anodize with an SMT Micro Anodizer from Reactive Metals Studio; do the dunk-and-dry several times with increased voltage to get all the colors possible in the spectrum; the drying part is important, otherwise the residual electrolyte (in this case, soapy water with dishwasher powder) on wet rings will take on new colors of any higher voltage. The fun part is the unfolding of the anodized bracelet; I have never tie-dyed before, but imagine this got to be just like it; seeing bands of colors burst into places all over the bracelet, I'm feeling the joy of being a hippie!!! btw, the earrings are anodized the same way except they have sterling silver ear wires that are put on after anodizing was done. Niobium won't oxide if there's silver in the electrolyte.

Now, can you say, "A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E"???



before and after:

Shaggy Loops Earrings

Fun earrings made with left over rings from practice kits. All rings are in 18 gauge, big and small; the beads at the very bottom are sterling silver.

Now only if I had a earring display stand .... hum, maybe a custom stand like this one, wouldn't that be nifty?! Here's the how-to on the stand; must give it a try.

Homework Time Again!

OK, now that I'm done with Spiderchain's Weaving Silver volume 1, moving onto volume 2. Here are the first 3 weaves (left to right): JPL, Helm, and Dragonscale. I've done JPL and Dragonscale in the past, but Spider's techniques are different, specially for Dragonscale, definitely worth revisiting.

The practice kit is aluminum rings from B3. Nice shiny rings, great for practice; not sure how long they'll stay shiny though...

Enough chitchat; time to get back to work.

Honey Bees

Honey Bee is weave by Redcrow of Corvuschain; it is in the Helm/Parallel family. Helm is a surprisingly versatile weave; so many variations and most are easily scalable to different aspect ratios.

This bracelet is made with Niobium rings from The Ring Lord; 18 gauge, 1.2 mm, aspect ratio is almost 5.5; slightly bigger than what's in the tutorial. So, instead of 2 rings on each bee's body, I added one more ring. Can you see the bees? I hope so; see the wings, the body, and the antenna, all there! They are sooooo adorable! The clasp is hand forged with 16 gauge Nb wire; I think I may change it to a toggle, might match more to the bee shape. Also check out the color version!