Chain Maille Funne

 I spent some time earlier this year sorting through old magazine patterns, and decided I had to make this chain maille ring by Daleann Stark:

That's an emerald crystal in there; I just could not get a good image of it.

 

 

Steel rings made this ring affordable, and it was fun, albeit super fiddly, to put together.

That wasn't enough chain maille, though! 

These earrings, made with anodized aluminum rings, were a heck of a lot easier to make. 

I'd forgotten how tactile and slinky chain maille can be. I'd also forgotten that it takes a certain amount of practice and skill to close all the rings properly. Clearly, I need to make more!

The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston

Joining the Inspired by Reading Book Club seemed like a no-brainer; I've been inspired more than once by what I read.  I won't be able to participate every month, but I look forward to those times I can.

August's selection was The Silver Witch by Paula Brackston, about a young widow who moves to a small house by a lake in Wales, and learns she has an unexpected connection to the lake's past.  A book with magic, folklore, and archeology is right up my alley, and for the most part I enjoyed the story.  Tilda is the widow in question, and Brackston does an excellent job depicting both her depression and her growing powers as she realizes that she is descended from a witch -- Seren -- who lived by the lake hundreds of years ago.

However, for a novel about powerful women there were odd gender politics.  The only other women of note in Seren's story are the main antagonists, who are, of course, jealous of her beauty and power and especially the love the local prince (married to one of the women!) has for her.  The nameless women of the village don't fare much better; Seren makes her contempt for their ordinary lives quite clear.  In Tilda's story, there are practically no women at all; even Tilda's mother (who never actually appears) is apparently only tolerated because of Tilda's love for her father.

The story was nonetheless enjoyable, and inspiration hit right away.  I had picked up an issue of Chain Maille Jewelry, and in it were instructions by Rebecca Mojica to make a Celtic Spikes pendant.  The pattern called for colored rings but I only had silver rings in the right sizes, which was apropos.  I strung the resulting pendant on a length of green velvet:

That's not text from The Silver Witch; I had to return it to the library

Silver and green work quite well for the lakeside setting, the moon, and the heroines themselves.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else made!

Jewelry Round-Up

A woven, beaded bracelet:

Whoever created the pattern was really committed to having it be photo only, with no written instructions, which left out some minor steps I had to figure out myself.  The finished product has a wonderful feel, and I want to make another in opaque colors.

 A Byzantine chain in colored aluminum rings:

 I bought the rings originally in the hopes of finishing the chain mail pendant I've been working on, but I foolishly bought the wrong size (I mixed up inner and outer diameters).  So I made a bracelet instead.  The rings are a slightly finer gauge than what works best for this weave, but they make for a fun accessory.

A bead soup necklace:

Adventures in Chain Mail

I went through a bit of a chain-mail obsession a couple of months ago.  The triggering event was the purchase of a package of large black jump rings for a button project; they didn't work for that, so I looked for another use and found a bracelet with the European 4-1 pattern in Chain Mail Jewelry:

Photographing this was tricky.

The original pattern called for alternating rows of titanium and rubber rings, allowing the bracelet to stretch over one's hand.  I just had the rings so I made the bracelet longer.  The rings are inexpensive and kind of scratchy, but it's fun and slinky on my wrist.

Not satisfied with one project, I opened up a mixed bag of rings I picked up ages ago, in all different colors and sizes.  A little bit of math later, I was able to adapt another pattern from the book to make a "crochet mandala":

Unfortunately I don't have the necessary small rings to keep all the rings on the edge nice and flat rather than floppy, so this piece is unfinished.  I could just sew the piece onto felt or something, but I'd prefer to keep it unlined.  I should figure out a solution soon (or find the right rings) because I love the colors.

I had actually made the earrings that go with this back when I first bought the book, using silver:

They are a little stiff, though, because I couldn't quite get the right sizes for the rings (perhaps because there are different ways to measure the rings and it is not always easy to go from one to the other).

I want to make more.  Urban Maille has great kits.  Mr. Beadgirl gave me the kits for three bracelets 10 years ago (sheesh); I should do some virtual window-shopping to see what's new.