Finally Learned HP3 In 1

It took me quite a while, but finally I've learned the HP 3 in 1 chainmaille weave. It's not easy to start, but Spider's second DVD makes it almost a breeze. Of course it also helps that the AR of the rings is around 5, so you're working with larger rings to start with, so you can keep the first few rings between your fingers without letting them slip.

Made my first chain in bronze. Not very happy with the closures, reason being the rings I got about 4 years ago from TRL in a jewelry kit, where the ends have all burrs and are pointed. Very bad quality. I should have bought instead saw cut, but what did I know at the time.

Anyway, here is my first half persian 3 in 1 chain, regardless of the closures, I'm quite pleased with it.

Byzantine Spikes Chain Maille Necklace

For me making jewelry mostly means wire wrapping and chain mail. I used to bead early on, but the beading bug completely left me at some point. So wire, mostly silver wire, is my real passion. I'm glad that during the last few years of absence this passion hasn't left me.

This time I'm back, with a few 'warm up' chain maille pieces that I did entirely hand-made (except the clasps). I cut the sterling silver wire into jump rings, which I've then used to create the jewelry below. All sterling silver.

In this post I'll showcase the necklace, a mix of byzantine 'spikes' with 2 in 2 chain. Initially I wanted to make it all the way through in byzantine, however the choker was becoming too heavy as it were. Now it has just the right weight without it being overwhelming. It measures 44 cm including the clasp (17.5"). Made from 19 ga (0.9mm) silver wire on 3.5 mandrels. About 3.8 or so AR if I remember correctly. The large rings are 1.5mm WD with 6mm ID with an AR of 4.

I know the 19ga wire size is not the most common one, but that's what I have in hard temper right now, so that's what I have to use for the moment. It's not so easy though to find too many chain maille weaves due to the rather limited amount of mandrels that I currently have combined with this particular wire size.

Anyway here is the necklace on display.

The second photo is not the most flattering one, but it shows the clasp, all sterling silver.

Chainmail Bracelet For Men - Sold

The latest jewelry piece I've sold was one that really took me a lot of time and silver. Not sure if I'll ever attempt another one so detailed, intricate ... and heavy.

Made of pure sterling silver, the chainmail weave for the bracelet is called Turkish round, and I've saved some of the pictures of the piece before selling it off in my Dawanda shop.

The size is 20 cm (8.5 inches) and it's really one of the heaviest bracelets I've ever created. Each silver ring was hand-sawn by me and interlaced with each other to create this long bracelet chain.