The Feminine Side of Chainmaille

Greetings all!

I am thrilled to see I'm not the only chick that prefers pliers and metal over needle and thread! It is good to know there there's enough of us to warrant a forum, too.

Due to quite a few reactions at the Colorado Renaissance Festival to my newest scalemaille project I am considering starting a new business venture in that line. It started over a decade ago in a LARP when I wanted a chainmaille shirt made just for my feminine curves and decided to make one of my own. I have since left Amtgard and just dabbled in maille as a hobby. Is there anyone in the San Antonio, Texas area that wouldn't mind discussing options and ideas? I'm actually in Colorado Springs for the next week or so and have plenty of spare time to discuss details here, too. In fact, I'm really not too picky about WHERE you are if you'd like to discuss details or give suggestions! Scalemaille has become my new love. (Don't tell my fiance'!) :)

~Stephanie

Hello Group!  Just wanted to hop in here and say hello.  I'm new to LJ, but the place looks promising. 
I've been making jewelry for too many years to count, The pic is a recent bracelet with carnelian.

Happy to have found the group!

Maryellen
Roanoke, VA

Hi everyone, just discovered today this community. European girl, I love making wire wrapped jewelry and chainmail to which I am currently addicted. Only about a year old with all this, but very much enjoy it.

Hey, just thought it was about time to stop lurking.

I have been doing maille for about a year now, mostly jewelery, but also some bigger projects. I have been interested in it for a long time but it took a work shop at a con to get me into it. Now there always is rings and pliers in my bag. In about two months time I'll do a new experiment which is a table at a con together with another couple of friends of mine who both also do maille. I am playing around with figuring out what might sell and what might not. My main reason for this is that I love making this stuff, learning new weaves and experimenting, but there is only so much jewelery a girl can have or push on her friends and rings are not exactly free (though I have discovered that hardware stores are amazing). And I love seing people wear stuff I make. To make this even more fun and related to this community, the con is ConBust 08 at Smith College, it is a con that focuses on women in gaming and scifi and fantasy.
 Let's see what else, hmm, I am 20, European, a fire juggler, a LARPer (that is how I got interested in chainmaille) and a scifi geek.

I wanted to say hello now that I have joined the group. My name is Kat Sanders and I have been making jewelry for about 1 1/2 years and playing with chainmail for about a year. I have started going an goth/electronic/alternative club and am making jewelry and accessories for me and my friends. (I also want to start selling some of my stuff to help pay for my addiction!) You can check out the pictures on my myspace page to see what I have made, though the stuff I just finished won't be up for a few days.

http://www.myspace.com/kat_sanders

My first project was figuring out European 4-in-1. I have a little swatch that I have no idea what to do with yet.

Searching through some chainmail websites, I found a pattern for Oriental 5-in-1 balls. Being the person I am that thinks about making jewelry more than I probably should, I used the pattern to make a necklace.

( click for the pictures )

The necklace was made with 20ga 'gold' and 'silver' decorative wire found at Wal-Mart. I made the links using an old knitting needle, so not sure about how that translates to an actual size. But I had fun making it and hope that someday (when I have time) that I can make more.

Just thought I would introduce myself, as so many people are doing :)  I recently got addicted to chainmail last year, when I saw the MetalDesignz kiosk at a local craft fair.  I searched them on the internet and discovered that both their company, and The Ring Lord are located within driving distance of my place, and then found out that a newly acquired friend of mine makes trips to The Ring Lord to pick up rings! So I instantly got him to pick me some up and now I'm totally hooked.

I normally make jewelry, but eventually want to branch off into the clothing/housewares departments.  I definitely look forward to sharing ideas/strategies/etc. with you all, because I'm a total n00b at this right now! :D

Hi! My names Lanie and I just wanted to intro myself to the community. =)

I love making chainmaille and am also on Etsy (which I also love for the most part). Anyway, I just wanted to say howdy all. 

Hello thought I would share a piece of what I've been doing with chainmaille.  I started out beading doing mainly jewelery. I discovered French beaded flower making as well. About a year ago I finally started to do some chainmaille. I saw this project and had to do it. Took me a bit to figure out the weave to do it, but I'm amazed at the results.

First attempt making Black and Silver Byzantine Bracelet using Black AA. I ordered a pair of Nylon Jaw Plier which will reduce the scratching.

Just needs a clasp.

I was invited by one of the teachers at the intermediate school I attended to teach her students about chainmaille during the medieval segment.  The students would be around 11 or 12 years old, I think, and it'll be just before Winter Break.

I've tutored, but never given a demonstration before!  I have no clue what to do... I've already thought about going in garb (uncomfortable, but would make things interesting), I figured I should get some history together about maille, and I know for sure have a swatch of Euro 4-in-1.  But, beyond that, I'm actually clueless...or even before that I'm clueless and don't even know it!

I would love to give them the chance to make maille themselves (Turning childrens into maille addicts! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! *cough*), but I can't afford to pick up pliers and enough rings to do that.  Does anyone have any low-cost ideas that I could do?  What other weaves would you recommend?  How about delivery of the info?  I love making things fun, funny, and entertaining, but sometimes my humor can be a little dry and a lot of sarcastic.

Any and all information would be appreciated!  Thanks!

:D

( +23,000 rings later... )

I'm looking for a heart shaped lock and key, a real one, that works. I've done web searches, but I can't seem to find exactly what I want. (Which is something like this (only not from Tiffany's because, well, $125 is way out of my college student budget! I definitely want it silver or aluminum(or similar color). Any suggestions?

Happy crafting!

Hi!

I'm Kati, I'm 19, and just a wee bit of a maille addict (Maillers anonymous, here I come!). I generally alternate between 5mm stainless steel rings (from the craft store) and 16ga 3/8"ID copper rings from a friend (running low on those, perhaps ordering more eventually). The 5mm Rings are a pain to fix when the weave breaks, but otherwise very pretty. 

I've done a few projects for myself, a bracelet or two (6-1 and 4-1 box),a tie (8-1 and 10-1), and a headpiece (6-1 and 3-1 spiral chain that i purchased), and I also make bracelets to sell. I'm not that great at maille, I only do simple weaves like Euro 4-1, Euro 6-1 (and so on and so forth), and Euro 4-1 box, but the 6-1 seems popular enough. 

Well, that all the intro I've got in me, so I guess I'm done.

Hello! I wanted to say hello and introduce myself and how i found the wonderful art of chain mail...

I've been trying to figure out for a while now what my passion is. Needless to say Video games was it when this idea I need a hobby jumped into my head.

Last year I contacted Dylon Whyte who i found on etsy.com because I need a chain mail bracelet fixed that I had made for me 10 years prior by someone that knew zip about chain mail. Well Dylon did a FANTASTIC job. To this day I can't figure out where are the rings he replaced in my bracelet are and which are the orginal. (1 in 4 Half-Persian)

Ok back to my Hobby. I've been staring at nifty bracelet all day at work and the Byzantine I also had him make for me, and it hit me like a ton of bricks that I love Jewelry. Like i have 100+ pairs of wire earrings so I can go months without wearing the same one for months.

I got Chain Mail Jewelry Book also by Dylon Whyte and i'm hooked.

This BIGGEST issue i'm having is between his book and the very nifty websites I've found giving great ideas I'm having a hard time ordering the same rings because some people use AWG and others SWG and i suck at math trying to convert it all back to metric so I can order things easily.

Does anyone have any ideas on easy ways to convert the sizes so that if you see a really great pattern you want to copy to learn how to do it you can use the ring sizes it recommends?

Hi!

I'm Libbey, I'm a 25 year old senior in college in Virginia. Over the past two weeks I have been learning to make chainmaille jewerly. The main reason I picked it up is because I wanted to make something for my boyfriend (I made him a Full Persian bracelet and he only takes it off to sleep *beams*). However, it's turned into an obsession! I didn't really expect to get so wrapped up in it (or should I say, chained up? ;).

So far I can do:

* The Full Persian

* Harvest Moon

* The 1 in 4 Spiral

I've been looking online for more patterns that I like. What are your favorite patterns?

I found this on a jewelry site and I want to make it. I can't find an actual pattern online for it, but it looks pretty straight forward. I'm thinking put a ring inside another ring, then put a third ring inside both of those, make a bunch of those and then connect them with tiny rings.

I'm not so good with figuring out gauge yet (and I'm kind of dyslexic and it's hard for me to estimate size), and I don't really know what size/ratio rings would work well for this. Any suggestions?

Some friends got me started with rings to work with so far, but I plan on ordering more. So far it looks like I will be ordering from The Ring Lord. From the other sites I have seen, it looks like their prices and variety are the best. Have you found this to be true?

Thanks!

(cross-posted a few places)

Greetings all!
I'm a long time mailer who has some very old habits which has brought me right now into a difficult position. Right now I'm working on a coif, to go with a hauberk I had just completed, made out of 14 gauge aluminum rings. I'm also on vacation (and brought a bunch coils with me. Hey, some people knit, we maille, rights?) However I didn't bring my wire cutters with me because they are HUGE and HEAVY - what would people recommend buying/using for wire cutters? Right now I'm working with these tiny little ones were I have to exert a lot of force and my hand cramps up - I'm a rather weak girl with big ambition.

So any wire cutter suggestions? What have you found that works best and is comfy (and is available in BC, Ontario?)

Many thanks!

Hello all!
I've noticed that people interested in recreating historically accurate jewelry and beadwork are scattered to the winds, so I created pastjewels in the hopes of bringing people together to share resources, designs, news, information and skills.

This will become a place to discuss all aspects of creating historically accurate jewelry!

Stop by if you're at all interested! :)

Free to a Good Home.

Wait.

Wrong line, wrong place.

Hi. I'm a relatively new chainmailler but long time LJer. I started in Maille a couple years ago in the most common way, making armor. It's only been in the last 7 months or so that I've gotten into making jewelry and such. I love looking at what others make and coming up with my own twists on weaves. Dunno if any of my modifications are original or not, but hey, I'm having fun.

I'm trying to learn the intracasies (okay, my spelling needs work) of making fashions such as bikinis and corsets, making seams in maille and such.

I just finished a necklace in Sterling:





And I made this bracelet a couple weeks ago:







Nothing real fancy there yet, but I'm learning.

Anyhoo, this is me. Nice to meet y'all

Ok so im in uk, and i need to know a good place to get rings (my most used is silver plated 6mm) 
I did find a really good 'batch' if u can call it that from someone on ebay but after a long break of not mailling i bought more and they are totally different they are a smaller gauge and not flush so i have to go through them and line them up but because they are thinner they get all bent out of shape more easily than the others!! Im just really annoyed that i had found the perfect rings for them to be replaced!! ahh