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!

Wednesday Worktable

Well, it can't always be about the fun beading, folks...today, I have to coil, cut, and tumble several thousand jumprings.

So, we travel back into the deep, dark recesses of my shop, to the back corner of my back room, where my ring-coiling equipment is set up.

These are my jump ring mandrels. I have an English set and a metric set, because you never know which system a pattern will use (and often, one pattern will mix sizes from both the English and the metric systems, because the sizes ARE slightly different!)

My 6.5mm mandrel is MIA because I pulled it one day to use in lieu of a dowel for a Viking Knit project - couldn't find my dowels anywhere. It's been over a year now .... probably should finish that Viking Knit!

After choosing the correct mandrel, I load it into the coiler and start coiling:

That's my spool of sterling silver wire hanging from the mandrel.

Close-up:

The coiling phase is rough on me, physically. My set up is nice and ergonomic - it is at chest height, so it isn't awkward, and I don't have to bend, stoop, or reach to wind the handle. But, I have to wind that handle one full rotation for every jump ring I coil, and with large batches of rings, that's a lot of strain on my shoulder.

Once all the rings are coiled (which they aren't yet - I had to take a break!), we head out to the classroom, where my saw is set up.

Each coil will be lubricated, then placed in the coil holder, and then cut with the saw blade which is inserted in my Flex Shaft.

And once all the coils are cut, the rings will go into the tumbler for awhile to be polished and work-hardened.

That's Jump Ring 101, and now you know what I'll be doing most of the day!

Jen's Pind Linkage (JPL)

JPL (Jen's Pind Linkage) is one of my favorite chainmaille weaves. It yields such a nice, tight, spiral weave, and in my opinion works well whether done in one color, multiple colors, round rings, square (wire) rings, and more.

In this photo, you can see 3 very different JPLs I have done:

The top chain was made with 16g gold-filled (round) rings, the middle one with 18g bronze rings cut from square wire, and the bottom one is a tricolor chain in 20g rings (copper, gold-filled, and sterling),

This is another photo of the 20g tricolor JPL:



I enjoy working with color so much that I made another 20g tricolor JPL to compliment the chain-bezelled raku cabochon now available in my Etsy shop.

I chose turquoise, blue, and burgundy rings for this chain; they pull out the gorgeous colors in the raku cab.

Here's a guided tour of the creation of the 18g bronze square JPL:

Getting started: big pile of rings, and a clasp.

The weave is established, and now I just have to keep it going until I reach the finished length:

Halfway done!

Finished:

Detail of finished weave:

I believe this square version of the JPL would make a great bracelet for a man - particularly if stepped up to 16g square rings.

Just a Quickie Tonight

Made you look! Ha!

Here are some shots from the wire-wrapping class we had at my bead shop today.

That's my seat at the far end of the table, with my ab-fab Lindstrom tools, and my coffee cup.

This pic is taken from my end, and that's the teacher down there at the other end - he is just the best! He is so patient with all of us, and so skilled and knowledgeable.

And FYI - he cut his finger last weekend while pruning the shrubbery at his house - NOT while wire-wrapping!

So, we made 3 projects today - 2 different pairs of earrings, and then a ring.

And those will be the subject of my next post.

My Newest Chainmaille Design

I may be stuck in a rut, folks... I am fascinated with combining different metals!

Here is my newest chainmaille design -

Flowers, made up of copper, sterling silver, and 14k gold-filled rings, in 6 different sizes.

This pattern took about 2 weeks to design, with a lot of failed attempts along the way. Lots of opening and closing of hundreds and hundreds of rings...

I didn't think it was going to be that difficult, so I didn't even start photographing until about a week into the ordeal.

Part of the delay in development was due to my running out of suitable jump rings, and having to wait for the order to arrive.

Here is a photo from about 10 days into the process - the last failed attempt is at the top, and the final pattern is finally visible below it.

This close-up of my last 2 attempts shows that the flower is visible in the upper design, but just not well-enough developed to suit me.

Then, as I stared at it, (and contemplated the agony of disassembling it once again, opening all those rings...) inspiration struck. I created 2 more flower units, changing the size of one of the rings in the pattern, and reconnected the units by bringing all the rings on the sides together with one larger sterling ring, and the final pattern emerged.

I took apart the previous design (that's 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back!) and got busy assembling the floral units and building the bracelet.

But I still wasn't quite happy with it, and wanted more color in the juncture between the flowers. I spent about an hour attaching and removing rings, trying to figure out how to get a mixture of metals in those connections, and finally gave up and went to bed.

When I got up yesterday, I continued building the flower units and connecting them, and it suddenly hit me - I could connect the units with an even larger sterling silver ring, and nest a copper ring inside the large silver ring...

This worked perfectly, so I disassembled the bracelet, again, and reconnected all the units, and finished it off with this stunning hammered sterling silver toggle.

Then I counted the remaining rings to make sure I had enough for a pair of earrings, (didn't want to start something I couldn't finish!) and I just love the result. Now all that remains is to tumble them, to remove tool marks and harden the rings, and I'll be ready to list them on Etsy (if I can part with them!)