Update - 5/26/11

I've decided to order an e-book from this site- http://www.culturejewelry.com/ - tonight. Making this purchase will provide me with 10 more patterns for different pieces of jewelry of varying difficulty. Here are examples of the pieces I will be able to make from the patterns included in this book:

Butterfly

Round 4-in-1 with inverted accent

Byzantine



A book?!

Well, it seems that in all the rush and confusion for me when it came to setting up this new project, I had completely forgotten that I'd needed a book to go along with it! However, I think I've found a suitable one: "Chain Mail Jewelry: Contemporary Designs from Classic Techniques" by Terry Taylor and Dylon Whyte. If I cannot find it in the Milford Library, I will be purchasing a copy of it this weekend to aid in my project. I will also be looking for one of two books detailing the history of chainmaille to use in my presentation.

Update - 5/19/11

I completed another piece last night. It will be given to my friend Karin as a gift after this class is over, so I designed it with her in mind. It is also not the European 4-in-1 pattern that I had initially planned on working on, but I'm rather happy with how it came out. It is a bit more complex of a pattern than that one; it is one of the "scale"-style patterns, though I don't remember the exact name. I will update this post with the name and information about the pattern when I can.

I still have to take photograph the other piece that I completed last week, which is a necklace following the 3-in-1 pattern. It is also a fairly simple piece, but I would still like to include it in this project, as a lot of time went into perfecting it. I hope to have the picture of it up by the end of the week.

Update - 5/17/11

This is the piece I completed last week. It is a simple bracelet following the European 3-in-1 pattern that I had described in my previous post.

Update - 5/10/11

Just a quick progress report on my project- I'm partway done with my first piece, which is a fairly simple bracelet. It isn't the European 4-in-1 pattern; it's a different one of which I don't remember the exact name, but I will post an image of it. I expect the piece to be done by mid-week, probably by Wednesday or Thursday.

This is the pattern I'm using:

Edit: now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure this pattern is just called a 3-in-3 pattern, or something like that.

5/10/11 - Voki

Update - 5/5/11- Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Even though that has nothing to do with chainmaille whatsoever, haha. Anyway, I've taken the time to go through the limited supply of jump rings and tools that I already have at home, and "limited" really is the best term for it at this point. While I may want to order more colorful niobium jump rings for later projects, I think I will have to go to Michael's this weekend to purchase some simple silver-tone ones similar to what I already have in stock. They are not the best quality, but they will suffice for the European 4-in-1 pattern that I will be demonstrating first.

These are the jump rings from the Michael's website:

These, however, are my preference to work with- higher quality rings made out of bright aluminum, anodized aluminum, or anodized niobium. They are more expensive, but easier to work with and they hold up better over time. Also, I personally think they just happen to look nicer:



When the time comes, I will be ordering these from http://www.candtdesigns.com/, a site I have ordered from in the past and have had great experiences with. However, I think I will also have to take the time to stop into another store, located in downtown Milford, called "Manifest Beads". I don't know much about the place, but I've heard that they have a pretty nice selection of bead and metalworking items, and that they also teach classes in both subjects. If it isn't too costly, I might even be able to take a class or two there to help in my learning new patterns.

This is the "European 4-in-1" pattern. It is most likely the first pattern that I will be using in this project, as it is the one I am most familiar with, and it is one of the most simple ones in existence.

Here is a little background on this pattern, taken from the CGMaille website:
"European 4-1 is probably the most common weave used in maille-dom, due to its simplicity and ease of construction. It's most famous for being the weave used in European knights' armor. European 4-1 can be made using several techniques, such as one-ring-at-a-time (ORAAT), one-open-one-closed (OOOC) and others."

Some examples of chainmaille jewelry:

As you can see, some patterns are far more complex and time-consuming to complete than others. My project will begin with the easiest of patterns and will work through as many of the more complicated ones as possible in the time I have left.

Chainmaille?

So, midway through the class, I'm changing my project. I've decided that I can't learn to play the violin within the allotted timeframe; my work schedule doesn't leave me with enough free time. However, I can expand upon a project I already know something about: designing chainmaille jewelry.

The art of making chainmaille goes back for centuries, and while it was originally used as armour it has of late become used in jewerlry making.The same patterns are used, with lighter-weight jump rings, to create bracelets, necklaces, and rings.

It's a fairly simple project- I will be demonstrating various patterns of increasing difficulty, expressed through the medium of jewelry. I will present them to the class, along with a history of the art and further explanations of the patterns and how they are used.