ChaosLight Makes Chainmail 8: Catching Up

I think we're on number eight now. I've been doing mostly boring stuff on the shirt, but got some side projects done in the meantime. Let's start with those.

I'm going to be going to Pax East this year, and the group I'm going with have commissioned some badge lanyards.


What you see here is a weave called half-persian 4-in-1, with a closer look here. It's a semi-decorative chain with a very slight chirality, and it's also considered one of the hardest weaves to start, due essentially to the fact that new rings go behind two old rings, and in front of one old and one new ring. It's really hard to explain, but I've come up wit a system that involves a bit of wire to keep everything in alignment while I'm starting it.

Here you can see both the main weave of a commission in white, blue, and purple, and the attachment point for another one in bronze and black. On the left-hand one, you can see where each ring of one line passes through four of the other: two through the 'top' arc and two through the bottom arc. The attachment point is something called Byzantine chain, with spiraled rosettes.


Some smaller works: a couple of earring sets in something called Rondo, a couple of bracelets in something called Stepping Stone, a small bronze ring made of half-persian 4-in-1, a pendant on a chain of european 4-in-1, and a handflower.

[url=https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vynNumC4iXU/Tz6Sp1GE5bI/AAAAAAAAAE4/U6NlSh84y8c/s887/Photo+Nov+29%2C+12+04+28+AM.jpg]This is Rondo. It's composed of a backbone of large rings, ornamentation in medium-sized rings and accents in small rings, as shown here, and here.

This is a magendaved (Jewish Star) pendant I made, and I'm fairly proud of figuring it out. Six bits of wire, each bent into an identical curve and woven together. If I make another one, though, I'm going to try to get them interwoven properly.

For those unfamiliar, a handflower is one of those things that you wear on the back of the hand, attached by a ring and a bracelet. Here's my first attempt, and here's somebody wearing one that I didn't make.

But I know everyone's curious about the shirt, so here it is.




When last I spoke to you all, I was ordering rings. After a point, I got tired of that and started making my own rings for a couple of reasons. I wanted to branch out into jewelry, and it's easier to find craft wire than pre-cut rings. I can also make whatever sizes I want on the fly. You need a power drill and a mandrel, and you basically wind the wire around a rod of the right thickness so you get a coil, then cut, clip, or saw that coil into individual rings. I'll go into the detail in a later post.

I wound up taking it in a little, as you might be able to tell from the close-up. You should be able to see a downward-pointing triangle shape where the weave is disrupted just a bit. But for the most part, it's long, boring, tedious and uninteresting work. Also, I ran out of high-grade steel wire, and the reel of galvy I picked up from home depot to replace it just isn't structurally strong enough to support the weight of what I already have. I'm going to expand it down to the point on the triangle, then trim the edges with silicon bronze.

I'm also seriously considering making a cape and attaching with magnets, so if anyone has any tops, I'd love to hear them.