Wednesday Worktable

Yes, it's time for that old chestnut, Worktable Wednesday? Why? Well, why not? It's Wednesday, and I'm sitting at my bench, working on something! Several years ago, I made this chainmaille tennis bracelet for myself:

Chainmaille tennis bracelet

The picture doesn't do it justice; it's sterling silver with Jet AB2x Swarovski crystals, and it sparkles for days!

Now, I'm making another one for a friend, this time with Turquoise AB Swarovskis:

I'd forgotten how long it takes to weave the rings for this bracelet! I've got one half of the spine about 2/3 done so far!

I'll be back with pics of the completed tennis bracelet once it's finished!

Happy Wednesday, and Happy Holidays!

Holiday Chainmaille Kits - these Christmas Trees are fast and fun gifts!

I have listed some chainmaille kits in my supply shop. Each kit can be assembled into 1 Christmas Tree pendant, with either multicolored "ornaments" or red ones:

An example of one of the multicolored kits is on the left, and the assembled pendant on the right. These pendants are almost 2 inches tall (1-7/8").

In addition to the enameled copper jumprings (which I cut and polished), each kit contains pictorial instructions for assembly - anyone familiar with Japanese maille will have no problem creating this pendant. (The instructions aren't intended to teach chainmaille techniques - just the pattern for this particular J-maille tree).

These can be assembled quickly, and make terrific teacher gifts, hostess gifts; just hang them from some ribbon, chain, leather - whatever! Anyone who appreciates festive holiday jewelry will love these!

The kits are available here.

Brass Byzantine Earrings and Bracelet: companion pieces

Remember the pretty chainmaille necklace I designed as part of the 5x5 challenge?

I had a few tourmaline nuggets left over, and quite a few brass jumprings, so what's a girl to do?

Make matching bracelet and earrings!

Brass Byzantine bracelet with tourmaline links and dangle

Brass Byzantine earrings with tourmaline dangles

The bracelet and earrings are available separately in my Etsy shop.

5x5 Metal Component Challenge Reveal, Chapter 2 (The square copper thing and the X)

Welcome to Chapter 2 of my 5x5 Metal Component Design Challenge Reveal
 (Chapter 1, the filigree ring, is here)

As a reminder, here are the components again:

 

 metal components for 5x5 challenge

After finishing my design with the filigree ring (yesterday's post), I decided to work next with the square copper thing at the bottom of this photo. I would stop calling it the "square copper thingy" if I only knew what it really was!

The location of its very tiny holes suggested it was meant to hang, like a pendant. (Although, at one point, I was so stumped I thought about cutting off those holes AND the supporting copper legs they were on, leaving just a plain copper square! I decided that would be a little too easy.) This square component was easily twice as thick as the 24g sheet copper I usually work with, for what that's worth. Thick, and heavy!

This piece really stumped me, again. But, building on my success with the blue lampwork flower and the filigree ring, I decided to see what I could find to "stick on" the pendant. I rummaged through the bead shop, and came up empty, inspiration-wise. Then I decided to dig into my super-secret stash, and I struck gold. Well, not literally - but sort of ... I found a beautiful vintage BSK earring, in green and gold.

vintage BSK leaf earring

BSK was founded in New York in 1948 and did business until the mid 1980s - the letters "BSK" stand for the initials of the three owners: Benny Steinberg, Slovitt and Kaslo. BSK was known for its colorful enamel designs, simple silvertone and goldtone pieces, and stunning designs - all at a competitive price point (the collections were widely sold in department stores, including Woolworth's.) I actually had/have both earrings AND the gorgeous matching brooch - I love the colors and design, and had squirreled them away for "later". I guess "later" is finally here!

Y'all probably know I'm big on making paper mock-ups of my metal designs, so that all my mistakes happen on paper (theoretically), instead of ruining my metal pieces. And since I only had one of these copper square thingies to play with, I decided I better experiment on paper:

I played around with clipping the earring on the paper model, and liked the result, so I decided to proceed.

The first step was to patinate the copper square so that it matched the earring. Learning from my experience with the filigree ring, I first took a rough emery board to the copper square, and roughed it up pretty well. Then I used antique gold Gilder's Paste, to get a nice brassy gold tone. Perfect! (I sealed it).

Next, I put some thought into how I would attach the earring to the copper square, and decided that I would NOT remove the earring clip - if I wired the clip to the back of the square, no wire would show from the front, leaving an unobstructed view of the pretty earring.

I placed the earring on the paper square, and marked my ideal placement for drilling holes. Good thing I did this on paper first - when I punched the holes in the paper (on either side of the widest point in the clip-on attachment) they turned out to be wider than the earring itself, so they showed from the front. Oops! I experimented a bit more with hole placement, and finally figured out the optimum placement for 2 holes, without them showing from the front.

the copper shows through where I buffed the holes - but it won't show on the finished piece!

At some point around this time, the patinated copper square, now gold, ended up next to the "X" on my workbench, and I saw that the "X" was a good size, proportionately, to hang the metal square from. (Wow, that is an awkward sentence - sorry!) I decided to figure out a way to use the "X" as a bail for the square.

The metal "X" is 78 mm long!

I had initially tried to think of other uses for the "X", and had made a paper mock-up to fiddle with. One of my ideas was to wrap it around a ring mandrel and turn it into a ring, with the ends of the X crossing on top - but it turned out to look more like some sort of weapon, and I couldn't figure out a way to de-weaponize it (that made me happy, design-wise) - so I had abandoned the ring idea.

The marks you see on the "X" in the pic above are where I decided to amputate its legs, in order to turn it into a bail. I cut them off with the jeweler's saw, and filed them with the Dremel. Then I turned the remaining legs under with roundnose pliers, to make loops for hanging. I did this because the legs were a little too narrow for me to feel safe drilling them (my first choice) - and I'm really glad I did this, because turning the ends under also shortened the "X" to a perfect size.

In the process of turning the ends under, I got some pretty ugly tool marks on the right side of the "X" (the left side in the pics) - I tried to remove these by buffing/polishing with the Dremel and my radial disc attachments (these things are THE BOMB):

Dremel with radial discs

The disc colors correspond with different grits, so you use them sequentially from coarsest (yellow) to finest (green).  They'll buff out scratches, remove firescale - I love them! You can get a brilliant, mirror shine with these babies! When I touched the yellow discs to the "X", they instantly removed whatever coating was giving the "X" its antiquey brass color, revealing a rich bright gold that perfectly matched the patina I'd applied to the copper square. Wow.

The "X" before buffing/polishing, next to the patinated square

After polishing the X, I remembered I needed to drill holes in its center to hang the copper square, so I drilled those holes, and went back and rebuffed and polished the middle of the "X" again.

you can still see the tool marks (at far left) - but they aren't too bad

Here is how the pendant looked after I wired the earring to the square, and then wired the square to the "X" (adding a couple of palace green Swarovski crystals for a little flash).  (I had to use 24g wire to connect the square to the "X", because the pre-drilled holes in the square were so small):

 front of BSK leaf pendant

the back of my BSK leaf pendant (formerly, the "copper square thingy")
The square and the X looked like brushed gold! So shiny - I love them (Sorry, Heidi and Joan - I gotta have the shiny!)

OK - the hard part was done - now to make a necklace for this pendant.

I wanted to pull out more green, and had some beautiful irregular tourmaline nuggets that were perfect. I didn't have any brass chain, and the gold chain I had didn't really match, and I didn't want to string or weave anything ... so after some thought about how to convert brass wire into a necklace, the light bulb finally came on: Girl, you DO know how to cut jump rings and make chainmaille, don't you? Duh.

I haven't done chainmaille in 2 years. No wonder I almost forgot! And I LOVE chainmaille! (except for the ring-cutting part.)

I cut several hundred brass rings, and decided to weave a byzantine chain, since it is the easiest for me to incorporate beaded links:

chainmaille and tourmaline necklace with vintage leaf pendant

brass toggle clasp for chainmaille and tourmaline necklace

So there you have it: the copper square thingy and the dreaded "X" components. Done! 3 components down, 2 to go!

OMG I am long-winded.

Oh yeah - almost forgot. This necklace (and the matching bracelet and earrings) are available in my Etsy shop!

Tomorrow: Chapter 3: the copper disc with the weird cut-outs.

Looking for Chapter 1 (the filigree ring)? - here it is! 

And don't forget to check out our feature in the May Issue of Bead Chat Magazine (we're on pages 21-26):

Chainmaille Earrings

I call this pattern "Bullseye:"

I love patterns that call for rings inside of rings, like dragonscale, and the Off-Kilter Celtic, and this one. And, of course, I love mixing metals! These are sterling silver and copper, but they would look great with different colors of artistic wire, too .... hmmm - I think I need to cut some more rings!

Floating Crystal Chainmaille Necklace

This necklace was featured in one of the beading or wire magazines several years ago; sorry - I can't be more specific than that - can't find the pattern anymore.

It uses 16g sterling silver rings, which are fairly large, and each unit "captures" an 6 mm Swarovski cube. I chose indicolite (one of my favorite colors). The crystal cubes appear to float in the weave, so it is called a floating crystal necklace.

I was so crazy about this look that I cut more rings, and made a matching bracelet and earrings.

Then the trouble started - the crystals don't want to stay where you put them.

They stay for a little while, but then they start to slip out of their "cages", sliding into the unit below them (gravity-wise) - and the more time they have, the more they make their escape! They turn sideways just a tiny bit from the position they are supposed to maintain, and can actually slip through 5 or 6 cages in one move if the cages below them are already empty. (I actually watched it happen)

About a week after I made this necklace, I decided to wear it, and discovered that almost all of the crystals had slipped out of place. I tried to manipulate them back into position without deconstructing the rings, but that didn't work. Weird, because the little chainmaille cages obviously weren't the tight fit they purported to be.... but anyway.

I toyed with the idea of taking it apart and re-doing it, but figured it would probably just do the same thing again, so why bother? So I ended up just taking it apart, and recycling the rings and crystals into other projects.

I followed the patterns instructions exactly - same gauge, same ID (inner diameter) -  not sure what the problem was. The crystals appeared to fit quite snugly into the little "cages" - and I really believe that if I had altered the AR (aspect ratio) at all, the cubes wouldn't have fit anymore.

Sigh ... I really loved this idea!

Byzantine Bracelet with Fine Silver Horse Focal

The fine silver focal is a slightly domed art clay silver connector, featuring a hand-drawn horse.

On either side, I've woven a large, heavy-gauge Byzantine bracelet, with a toggle closure.

[Sorry - this bracelet has SOLD]

Holiday Wreath Chainmaille Earrings

Aren't these festive?

These chainmaille wreath earrings were woven with jumprings I cut from red and green artistic wire. They are very lightweight, and I love the red artistic wire earwire with them!

Available on Etsy!

Silver and Copper Chainmaille Bracelet

I call this one "Off-Kilter Celtic"; it is a variation of the Celtic Weave:

The sterling silver rings fit inside the larger copper rings, and smaller copper rings link everything together.

I love mixing metals, and I love the large copper toggle I chose for this bracelet - this one's a keeper. All mine!!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Blue and Green Chainmaille Earrings

These earrings were made hundreds of very small jumprings, in the Turkish Round weave:

The peacock blue and seafoam green rings are artistic wire, and the silver ones are sterling. They hang from sterling silver posts.

They're available on Etsy!

Spherical Chainmaille Earrings

Building on yesterday's post about chainmaille spheres, I designed a pair of dodecahedron chainmaille earrings with sterling silver and gold-filled jumprings. I love mixing metals!

These spheres are smaller than the red and green dodecahedron I posted yesterday. They hold their shape beautifully, and are not heavy at all. I love these!

Playing around with Chainmaille Spheres

I spent a couple of days playing with jumprings, assembling them into spherical constructs:

Red and green Dodecahedron

Celtic Cage - it has a 12mm sterling silver round in the center to help it hold its shape, but it still isn't really spherical

This is my favorite! I adapted it from the chainmaille bracelet I showed you yesterday:

It holds its shape well, and I have made several of these, turning them into pendants and keyfobs:

blue and orange chainmaille pendant - Florida Gator colors!

pink and silver key chain

I've been playing around with various school color combinations, and some are available in my Etsy shop!

Copper and Sterling Silver Chainmaille Bracelet

I was dying to use these triangular copper and sterling silver beads - I loved mixing metals, and I love the shape and texture of these great beads!

I designed this Byzantine chainmaille bracelet with a mix of sterling and copper jumprings:

And look how the toggle matches!

It's available on Etsy!

Blue Diamond Chainmaille Earrings

These diamond-shaped chainmaille earrings were created with blue niobium jumprings. They are so slinky - they move like waves on the water. Love them!

And they're available on Etsy!

Peridot Byzantine Earrings

I wove these chainmaille earrings using the Byzantine weave, with a mixture of sterling silver rings and rings I made from this gorgeous peridot artistic silver wire - I just love this color!

Chainmaille Earrings with Swarovski Crystals

Chainmaille is near and dear to my heart, in all its iterations - but with my well-known love of embellishing, this pair of earrings was a natural:

They began as "flat chain", a weave I really love - it looks especially nice in bracelets, because it lies so flat. Hmmm -- wonder if that's where the name came from? LOL. This particular flat weave was done with 14g square rings (meaning, the round jump rings were created from 14g square wire). Many of you know I love to mix up my chainmaille by using heavier gauges and/or square or twisted wire for the rings, like this JPL, this dragonscale, and this tryzantine.

Anyway, since this weave does like to lie flat, it was an unusual choice for earrings. But I wanted the earrings, to go with the matching bracelet (which doesn't have crystals - yet). Once I had woven the rings into the earring length I wanted, I saw that they just didn't want to hang right, so I started thinking about dangles. I love Swarovski crystals in Fire Opal AB, and like how they look when paired with citrine AB Swarovskis - so bright, vivid, and summery! So that's what I chose, and I love these earrings!

I haven't listed the bracelet on Etsy - I'm debating with myself over whether to put the fire opal and citrine crystals on the bracelet. But the earrings are available! And if you like them, and would like a matching bracelet (with or without crystals) feel free to contact me through my Etsy shop!

Chainmaille Lariat

This heavy sterling silver lariat is woven with 16g rings in a tubular variation of the European 4-in-1 chainmaille weave, and feels so good to wear - it drapes so gracefully! I used snowflake obsidian and gorgeous tourmalinated quartz for the dangles - I wanted to use just these beautiful pieces of tourmalinated quartz, but I didn't have enough! Don't you hate when that happens? But the snowflake obsidian fills in nicely, I think.

Dragonscale Variations

Dragonscale is my favorite chainmaille weave. It is a dense, complex weave, and can be challenging. Dragonscale calls for 2 different sizes of jumpring, with the smaller one being required to nestle entirely within the larger one. The many colors and combinations of jump rings available allows for seemingly endless combinations to this fascinating and interesting pattern.

This was my first Dragonscale:

I had seen quite a few pics of dragonscale bracelets in various magazines, including an ad by Beadalon that ran for months in many of the beading magazine, and featured a pink and silver dragonscale bracelet. I was determined to teach myself this weave, and chose a complex palette designed to mimic the oceany colors in a coral reef (I used to scuba dive a lot, back when I had a real job, and wasn't a starving artist!) I finished this bracelet about a year and a half ago, and it remains one of my favorite creations. It's made with all 18g rings, and is soft, flexible, and slinky. The colors I chose make it hard to see that one ring is smaller, and sits inside its larger counterpart.

About a year later, I found time to get back to dragonscale, this time mixing 16g sterling silver rings and 16g square copper rings (the wire used for the rings was square). It is easier to tell from this 2-color combination that the smaller, copper ring is nestled inside the larger, sterling silver ring.

This bracelet was extra challenging because it took more hand strength to close the 16g rings. The bracelet is also denser, and much less flexible, because the AR (aspect ratio) has been markedly decreased by the larger gauge wire AND the fact that half the rings are square.

It is really easy to see from this picture why this weave is called Dragonscale - don't the overlapping silver rings remind you of scales on a reptile's skin?

I finished my third dragonscale variation earlier this week:

This one uses all 20g rings, and the slinky flexibility I love about dragonscale is back! I think you can see that the smaller, blue ring sits inside the larger, sterling silver ring. If you are planning to learn dragonscale, take my advice and choose 2 contrasting colors for your first attempt, so that you can easily see which ring goes where!

I wanted to show you some photos I took of the 3 bracelets, trying to demonstrate this flexibility I keep mentioning, as well as some other fun facts about working with different gauges of wire in chainmaille.

Here are my 3 dragonscale bracelets together:

The bottom bracelet (the blue and green 18g dragonscale) is 7 rings wide.
The copper and silver 16g bracelet is 5 rings wide.
The blue and silver 20 g bracelet is 5 rings wide.

Note the marked difference in width between the copper/silver bracelet and the blue/silver bracelet, even though they are the same number of rings wide: this difference is because the 20g jump rings are so much smaller than the 16g ones.

Here is another series of photos, showing the 3 bracelets fully extended, and then fully compressed, to show how much flexibility is inherent in this pattern:

Fully extended, this bracelet (excluding the clasp) is nearly 6.5 inches long.

Compressed, it is only 3 inches long, meaning over half the length of the bracelet can be swallowed up by the open nature of this intricate weave!

Fully extended, this 20g dragonscale bracelet (excluding the clasp) is 7 inches long.

When compressed, this dragonscale bracelet is only 5-3/4 inches long.

When extended, this dragonscale bracelet is 8 inches long.

Compressed, this dragonscale only loses about 1-1/4 inches of length. This loss of flexibility is primarily due to the square wire used for the copper rings, although the heavier gauge wire is also playing a role. In order to achieve the flexibility I have in the other 2 bracelets, I would have had to make both the sterling and the copper rings in this bracelet much, much larger.

As you can probably imagine, this dense 16 gauge dragonscale bracelet is also quite heavy, and because of the dense nature of the weave, it retains a rounded cuff-like shape when worn, which I actually think is pretty cool. It definitely makes a statement!

That's probably way more than you ever wanted to know about dragonscale, and chainmaille in general. Sorry - I tend to geek out a little bit about it!