ok, I apologize for the blurriness of these pics, my phone will take a pic that looks fine and then when it gets uploaded it turns out ?????????? wtf anyway, this is the most efficient way I've found to do this. there might be other ways, but this is what I've become comfortable with. I used two different colored rings to make things easier to see. Spoiler: European 4-in-1 chain tutorial! I start with 2 batches of rings, some open and some closed. This just speeds up the process a bit, if you open/close some beforehand. (depending on how they come. Jump rings come closed, rings from chainmail companies tend to come the way they were cut apart, slightly open. The open ones here are all gold because they'll be forming the middle stripe. I also use a twist tie (not sure what other people call them, they're wire encased in plastic or paper used for holding bags closed) and I'll show why. 1. To start, take one open ring and put four (4) closed ones on it. Close it and lay the whole thing flat, arranged like so. 2. Pick up the arrangement and pinch it between your fingers so none of the rings move. Then thread another open ring through the top two like so. the direction you thread it is important. You're basically making it lie the same way as the other gold ring. 3. Close that ring and thread the twist tie through it. a bit of string or a paperclip works too. its just to mark this as your top ring and make the chain easier to handle. You'll notice when you hold it up the chain collapses. This is ok! just put it down on a surface and fiddle with it a bit... until the gold rings are lying in the same direction again. You'll basically have to just flip the bottom one forward/down. 4. Now for actually building onto the chain, here are the steps you'll be repeating over and over. Put two closed rings on an open one. then thread the open ring through and underneath the bottom two silver rings.
and the rest b/c only 10 images per post... Spoiler: tutorial cont. 5. Again, you'll see that when you hold up the chain the bottom two rings will just hang there. simply lay the piece down and flip them into position before adding more... Once the chain is a desired length, i add one more open ring with a single closed one on it instead of two. The top ring (with the twist tie) you can attach the bracelet closure to! on the other side i add a length of regular chain to make the bracelet size adjustable. I hope this made sense, let me know if there's something i can make clearer.
I don't make this stuff, I haven't the patience, but I thought it might amuse you to know that at my old longsword fighting club there was a guy who always wore chainmail that he had made. But it invariably turned out that if you don't weld the rings they can't actually stand up to being hit repeatedly with a sword (even a nylon one), so his mail ALWAYS had holes in it. I didn't like him much, so I used to follow him around and try and poke him with my sword-tip through the holes. 8D
Aura 2 chain with seed beads! My dad just came in, had me put it on him, and immediately left. So. Hopefully I will get it back eventually. :P
Boosting this because I have a shitton of rings since they were on clearance and some free time coming up soon. Does anyone want a bracelet made?
I never wear bracelets (no jewellery below the elbow allowed in hospital) but I can appreciate pretty things. I'd really love to see pictures! :D
