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.

Drops Of Sunshine - Yellow jade agate sterling silver necklace

I've been working on this necklace the whole week, a bit every evening after work. Today I finished the chain, clasp, tumbled it for about 2 hours for extra spark and durability and took pictures of it.

The stone is a gorgeous yellow jade briolette that matches beautifully the small yellow agate beads. Wrapped in several gauges of sterling silver wire, the chain is approximately 45 cm.
It wears perfectly with a summer dress on a tanned decollete.
To purchase, visit this link at my Dawanda shop.

Byzantine and herringbone

I was busy the whole week with this byzantine necklace, a piece on commision. Now hope they will actually buy it :)
Sterling silver with a gorgeous clasp bought on Etsy. AR 3.5 on 1mm wire.
I love the byzantine, it's a timeless beautiful weave which is gorgeous either on its own, or with beads in between. This piece took me pretty much the whole week as I had hundreds of silver rings to cut.

Tonight, after all this chainmail, I wanted to do something entirely different, but still something in my comfort zone. So I picked the herringbone weave, which I love so much. The beads are goldstone, they sparkle so much in the light, they're simply gorgeous. For the first time since I make herringbone, I've used thicker wire for wrapping, it has quite an interesting effect. I might use it again for larger beads.

Poppy necklace

Since I'm on a chainmail roll, here is my latest creation. Spent the better part of Friday evening and Saturday morning winding and cutting the coil to make the rings for it (two sizes, AR 3 and 6), and Saturday afternoon until late in the night I was working on the necklace. I pulled apart at times bits and pieces of it until I got the design the way I wanted it. Although it did turn out to be come something else than I first envisioned. Oh well...
I named it poppy necklace after the lampwork bead I bought from an Etsy artist, who named the bead 'poppy'. All metal, including the gorgeous heart clasp is sterling silver.

And what I'm doing as my next project? Well I'm just in the middle (ok start) of learning the turkish round mail, using bright aluminium (silver became just too expensive nowadays for learning).
Not the easiest weave to learn though...

If you're curious how to make chainmail jewelry, check out my previous post on it.

Aurelia necklace and bracelet

This is what I've been working the whole weekend. Yesterday I was busy cutting the rings with my jeweler's saw, and today I made the necklace and bracelet in sterling silver and larvikite beads, based on the aura weave.
Once I figured out the weave, it was very easy. It's just like a part of byzantine with the rings flipping back. I used 1mm wire 6 and 3 mm ID.

Learning to border wrap a pendant

I am learning wire sculpture and in all the pieces at least the main stone needs to be wrapped secured around. I've played around already with Remy's style of setting, and now I decided to try the 'other' border wrap, where the wires have a nice slits in the middle, I like this style so much better. Plus it used much less square (of half-square) wire, of which I hardly have, as I have to order this type of wire from the internet. Expensive!
Stone is turquoise jasper, a very soft stone as I've sadly noticed today. Wire is all sterling silver. I've found that setting the stone this way is so much more secure and it gets shaped somehow easier too. I will do more like this and then attempt again the wire sculpture pendants.

If interested, you can find it in my shop. Looks like it's one of the most viewed, pinned and added as fan items in my shop :)

My first chainmail necklace

I've worked on this sterling silver with rhodonite necklace during the weekend and only today I had a chance to take a picture with me modeling it. I like it quite a lot.
I've put the necklace last night in the tumbler and it shines now so nicely :)
Before putting it in the tumbler, I checked first about the hardness of rhodonite, as some stones (like turquoise, or pearls) do not fare well in the tumbler for a long time (say longer than 15 minutes, others nothing at all). But rhodonite has a hardness of 5.5 to 6, so I though 'all is well', as they say it's safe to tumble any stone with a hardness of at least 5.5. And safe it was, indeed :)
Here is a good place to check for the Moh's hardness of your semiprecious (or precious) stones if you're not sure you can tumble polish them or not.

And here is the matching pair of earrings. Handmade square earwires as well.