Handmade Monday: Chain maille flowers tutorial

What a lovely week it's been since the weather got over itself on Monday.  We had a great walk yesterday at Wixford, followed by a delicious lunch at The Fish pub there.  It's been a good week for sales in the shop too, especially for bag charms, and I've made some progress updating my web site so people can design their own charm bracelets and necklaces.  The wild flower strips in the Coventry parks make you think you're in Italy!

They are actually not sunflowers but loads of these lovely flowers. Do you know what they are called?

They've inspired a tutorial this week.  Partly because I've not done one for a while and partly because I find it so easy for me to forget how to do things these days, it's handy to write them down on my blog. Also, unlike the other chain maille designs I've done, I'm not sure if anyone has done this particular flower design this way before. You usually find there is nothing new in the world of craft, so apologies if I am unwittingly copying!  Here's a daisy version of the watch style bracelet.

You'll need 11 beads and 51 jump rings for this design.  The tutorial is just for the flower - if you want to turn it into a watch style bracelet you'll need a few more jump rings in different sizes and to learn the butterfly chain maille weave.  I can cover that in another tutorial if you want. I'm using 6mm beads and 50 5mm jump rings, and one large 12mm jump ring for the centre. You need a bit of fine gauge wire too (0.4mm is good) and some beading thread. I like to use very strong jump rings, the ones I'm using here are 1.2mm gauge - Fabfifi50 on EBay is my favourite supplier for these.

Start with the 12mm jump ring. Close it and use the fine wire to wrap one of the 6mm beads in the centre, then add 10 of the 5mm jump rings to either side of the bead. 

It looks a bit messy at the moment and the centre bead will be quite loose. Don't worry about that - it will all tighten up soon.  

Next add 10 jump rings to link up in pairs the jump rings you've just put on. 

This is a very easy design but the next bit is where you could do with counting out 10 of the remaining jump rings and making sure you keep stopping to check that you're adding the jump rings on the same side of the flower.  This time you link two of the original jump rings again, but alternate ones from last time so that the next layer of jump rings lays on top of the last one. It's hard to explain, but hopefully clearer in the photo. 

The design will be really loose at the this point, so watch out for naughty jump rings trying to flip over and confuse the pattern!  The next step is to tighten the whole thing up with jump rings linking the last two layers:

Use 10 again and make sure you always link two jump rings but never go through the same jump ring twice. 

Now it's time to add the beads. Put one as a stopper bead on a long length of beading thread and then begin to sew them on, picking up one jump ring from the last layer between each bead as you go:

I find I need to go around with the thread several times to get the flower really rigid. The advantage is that you then don't need to tie or crimp the ends of the beading thread, they can just be cut.  You can see the beading thread a little but I don't think it detracts too much from the flower.

Once finished, you can add further connector jump rings as you need them.

There you go. 

Here's a link to what other crafty folk have been doing this week. 

Alison x

Handmade Monday: Viking weave

Just looked back and realised that it's a year since I promised my blog readers a tutorial on Viking weave.  Well, better late than never! The shops have been really busy this week, so doing a tutorial is a change which is as good as a rest.



This is the original Viking weave bracelet I made - single knit, which is what I'm going to describe, and quite a fine chain.  This was a try out piece made in fine copper tone wire.

I moved on to working with thicker wire for this set.  The thicker wire is harder to work, but looks more substantial.  When you do the 'magic' bit on wire like this, it is really incredible!

OK, here we go.  You will need something round to work on, I'm using a chopstick, but the handle of a wooden spoon, or even a long thick pencil would do.  Or you can buy a special tool called a Laizee Daizee if you are feeling flush.  You'll also need wire.  The smaller the gauge that you start with, the easier it is to work.  I'm using 26 gauge (0.4m) wire for this demo.  You will also need a drawplate - more on that later.

Step 1: Start by making a flower with some of the wire.  This does not have to be neat or perfect, it's not even part of the finished design.  Wrap the wire around your fingers 4 or 5 times and use the loose end to wrap around the middle.  The number of petals on your flower determines the density of the knit - more will give a tighter knit.  I find 4 or 5 is good.

Step 2: Squash the flower onto the top of the spoon or chopstick, so that the petals are quite evenly distributed around the circumference.

Step 3: Take a length of wire as long as you can comfortably work with.  Joining in new wire is not a problem, so don't worry about using a long length - when you get used to the pattern, you'll probably find you can use a longer length.  Make a loop around two of the flower petals as shown, as if you are going to sew them together.

Step 4: Move round to the next petal and make a similar loop which joins the second petal to the third and makes the same loop pattern in the wire as you started with.  You will have a loop under the flower now - don't pull this tight, just leave it to rest.

Step 5: Keep going round the petals in this way until you get back to the start.  At this point, make the same loop but around the base of the first loop that you formed to join the petals.  You are aiming to make a row of these loops underneath each other.  Now you just keep going....

Step 6: The great thing is, you don't have to be neat.  Look what a messy sausage I've been this length - twirling around all over the place.  The messier it is, the greater fun you'll have with the drawplate which will turn it into a tidy, organised chain.  Honestly, no kidding!

Step 7: Don't panic when you come to the end of the length of wire.  Simply take your new length of wire and make the first loop over the top of the last loop you made.  Keep the two ends of wire lying together underneath your stiches.  I twist the wires together for extra security and trim them.  Keep working round with your new wire and eventually you will cover the twisted wires.  The beauty of the knit is that the end of wire will be inside the finished links, so they won't be visible.  I've seen some tutorials where people have used a crimp to keep the two wires together - I think this is more visible, but might be for you if you need extra security.

Step 8: Keep going until you have enough.  How do you know when you have enough?  Well, you need to bear in mind that you are going to be stretching the weave through the drawplate and it will get considerably longer when you do that.  There is a way to calculate the length you need to knit:

length of finished chain required (inches)
_________________________              = x (number of inches of knit needed)

             1.4 inches

so if you want an 18 inch chain for a necklace

18
___ = 12.8 inches
1.4
You will need to make about 12 or 13 inches.  It's a rough calculation that will vary depending on how much drawplate work you do.  If you make too little, you might get away with more use of the drawplate, but you will end up with a finer diameter of chain.  If you make too much, you can simply snip the chain.  The loop formation means you can do this without it unravelling.  Again, the Viking knit takes quite a time, but is versatile.

So, you're nearly there and at the fun bit.  Get your drawplate ready.  You are going to convert your messy wire into something interesting...

I leave the flower on the top of the weave 'sausage' as it's a useful cone shape to push through the drawplate.

Step 9: Put the weave 'sausage' into the first hole it will fit in comfortably in your drawplate.  There are lots of lovely drawplates around, some beautifully made in wood, I'm using my plastic BeadSmith one.  Pull the chain sausage through the hole twice.  It won't look much different, but might feel a little smoother round the edges.  Go to the next smallest hole and do the same - two draws through the hole.  It gets a bit more difficult as you work down the hole sizes, but each time the sausage gets a little narrower and tidies up a bit.  The loops arrange themselves in perfect rows, and it starts to look like a very complicated and densely woven length of chain.  You can pull through with the pliers on the flower on the top of the sausage when it gets to the smaller holes, as you are going to snip this flower off in a moment.

Step 10: Stop when your chain is at the diameter you want.  The only other thing to do is to run it through your fingers along the chain a little bit to loosen it up, as it has acquired a bit of tension (as we all do from time to time!) from the drawing.  Snip off the flower at the top.  You have ends which can be finished in whatever way you want - the bottom end will have whatever length of wire you finished with and this can be used to link through the loops and pull together to make a neat end.  You can do the same at the top - use a piece of wire to collect up the loop and pull them together into a cone shape.  This can be wire wrapped, or fed into a finding - however you want to finish it. 

I went to the last hole on the drawplate to make this a very fine chain.  Here's another using slightly thicker wire (24 gauge, 0.5mm) where I stopped drawing on a larger diameter hole, and used a double knit.

How do you do a double knit?  You can form your loop differently (into the row above the last one) - I found that difficult  - or, as I did, simply use a double strand of wire each time.  If you fold a long piece of wire in two, when you come to join in the next piece, you will have a bend in the wire instead of two loose ends, which is an advantage too as it's tidier to hide.

It looks a bit like chainmaille, doesn't it, or a neat cable knit?

Phew, hope that's clear!  It's one of those things that sound complicated when you are describing it, but once you start doing it, you realise it's quite straightforward.  If you really want to impress your friends, don't forget to tell them you are doing trichinopoly, a skill which probably dates back to the 9th century AD.  That may or may not be a conversation-stopper!

Happy weaving/knitting!

Here's the link to what other crafty people have been doing this week.

Alison

Handmade Monday: Rustic rings tutorial

Why don't I make many rings?  Well, number one, I'm no good at them.  Number two, they always come out a funny size (perhaps because I don't measure properly!).  Number three, I'm no good at them.  Number four, the shanks look like the back leg of a pony.  Number five, I'm no good at them.... You get the picture?







This is as far as I've got in the past - these little howlite or pearl ring which are elasticated (apart from my wire rose rings).  I sold one from my Folksy shop yesterday and as I was parcelling it up had an idea that I thought might make life easier...

The idea was to make a ring like a wire wrapped bangle.  The shank could be any 4mm bead or pearl and as in a bangle, the wire wrapping would strengthen the shank and could be used to prettify the central bead too if desired.

 It could work with even the smallest pearls.  So I set out to have a go and these are some of the results.

They are by no means perfect, but they are streets ahead of my attempts at conventional wire shank rings.  One big advantage for me is that I can count the beads and work out the ring size from that rather than having to fiddle about with a ring mandrel.  And instead of having lots of thick wire left around the shoulders which has to be cut and then left exposed, there are plenty of places to tuck the ends of the wire neatly.

Here's a quick tutorial if you want to have a go.

I used 0.8mm wire for my rings, after experimenting with 1mm (too tough for me to manipulate) and 0.6mm (easy to work, but a little more fragile).  As usual, I didn't measure the amount of wire needed, just a good workable length.

Thread the beads on and ensure they all fall right in the middle of the wire. Each bead only has one strand of the wire through it, so it's easy to use very small beads and tiny pearls.  Here I've got some blue and pink quartzite and picture jasper beads for the shank.

You can use the mandrel or any other cylindrical object to form a nice circle, but if you've practised and know the right number of beads for your size, you don't need a mandrel to measure with.

Make sure the beads are sitting tightly together and do one twist of the two ends of the wire together.  Make this as small as possible as it's going to be sitting between the beads at the back.  Don't worry too much that the shape of the ring gets compromised at this point.  Adjust the wires so that they remain twisted and face in the right direction to be wrapped around the beads...

...And wrap each little bead, using the crevice between the beads to anchor the wire before wrapping the next bead.  The wire will have a natural curve, so follow that and the wraps will form easily.  Go right up to the central bead(s) and decide if you want to wrap across it with one of the wires or not.

On this one I left the centre bead plain, so all that remains to do is finish off.  I wrapped several times on the shoulders and then cut and tucked the wire ends on the back side of the beads. 

I need more practice to get it perfect!  You can work it so that each of the wraps on the beads are going in the same direction and sit at the same place on the bead.  I've left mine organic (that's slang for 'lazy' in my house!)

I used the mandrel now to ensure that ring is (nearly) perfectly round.  Now is also the time to give it a little twist on the mandrel if it's coming up a little small in size - it will stretch a little.

Done!  They look quite rustic, I think, but I like that.

This one is plum quartzite and a first go with a little coin bead.

Here's the link to see what other crafty folk have been making this week.

Finally, apologies that if you comment, there will be a delay for 'approval'.  I really love your comments, but have had some really persistent spammers in the last two weeks and it takes a really long time to clean the blog up afterwards.  Please do comment though, I love to hear your views.

Handmade Monday: Weaving wire tutorial

Fossil bag charm sold

Butterfly key ring sold

This week I've been busy with an article for a magazine (watch this space for further details!) and a couple of sales, and today I'm in a competition. But I managed to fit in finishing a necklace and earring set using hammered and woven wire.  I've always found it tricky to get fine wire secured when starting off - this design solves that problem by having the links hammered first so that the thick wire is flattened which really makes it so much easier.


Here's a tutorial if you want to try it - a very straight forward if fiddly technique.

You'll need:
Thick wire - I've used 1m (18 gauge) here
Thinner wrapping wire - 0.4m (24 gauge) here
Pearls
Chasing hammer and block
Chain nose pliers

Step 1: Make the connector shapes in wire and hammer.  If you're making earrings, make sure you make and hammer two at the same time so they are identical and a mirror image of each other.

Be careful hammering the coloured and coated wires.  Try to tap them gently with the hammer covering the surface as evenly as possible.  More taps are better than a couple of hard knocks - you're less likely to scratch the coating.

If you have curves on your designs as I have here, you may need to readjust them after hammering.  Be careful using the pliers on hammered wire as the wire has been work hardened, but this means it is also more brittle.




Step 2: Get your thinner wire ready for the weaving.  You can work off the spool here to minimise wastage.  I've threaded on enough of the pearls for both earrings.

Look at the state of my steel block!  Really must give it a clean.  But like all tools, it seems to work better in the 'used' state ;-)That's my excuse for slovenly home economics anyway!

Step 3: Start to weave with the fine wire.  Leave a reasonable tail.  The more the thick wire connector has been hammered, the easier it is to make the thin wire stay in place.  Decide how many coils you want between each bead, but you may need to do a couple more for security at the beginning and end anyway.

Step 4: When you're ready for it, move the first bead or pearl up and gently manipulate the wire so that it's laying in the correct orientation. Continue the weave after the pearl in the same way

Step 5: Continue.  If you want to be really neat, make sure that you always keep the same pattern around the pearl.  So if the wire was coiled in front of the connector before the pearl, coil it back in front of the connector for the first coil after the pearl.

Step 6: When you're finishing off, make the same number of coils as at the top and snip your wire.  Neaten the ends of the coiling wire with the chain nose pliers so that the ends are tucked in at the back of the component.

 There's one done. Here are the finished earrings and necklace.  Can't quite decide which earrings I like best.  Some of the lovely folks on the Jewellery Maker facebook page helped me with designs, so they should get the credit for them really!

Earrings 1

Earrings 2

So which do you prefer?

Here's the link to see what others have been doing this week

Handmade Monday

Well I've been away and missed a couple of Handmade Mondays, so I thought I'd come back with a tutorial on how to make a beaded bead.  I know at least one person who wants the instructions!  They are very simple when you get the hang of them.

You'll need:
15 beads
A headpin
Some glue
Thread - preferably monofilament

I'm using a thicker beading thread for the demo so you can see it, and different coloured beads to make it easier to follow.

Step 1

Thread 3 beads

Step 2

Thread a fourth bead by crossing both ends of the thread through the bead.  Now you're weaving :-)

Step 3

Pull the ends of the thread right through the last bead until it is sitting on top of the other beads, forming a diamond shape.

Step 4

Thread one more bead onto each of the ends of the thread

Step 5

Thread the next bead by crossing the ends of the thread through the bead again

Step 6

Continue to thread a bead on to each side of the thread, then thread another bead by crossing the ends of the thread through, until you have a 'ladder' of 12 beads.  The beads will start to curl up, but that's not a problem.

Step 7

Instead of adding another bead, thread the two ends of the beading thread through the bead at the bottom of the 'ladder'.

Step 8

Put a loose bead into the centre of the ladder

Step 9

Pull the threads tight and the round shaped beady bead will appear, as if by magic!  To make the beady bead as sturdy as possible, weave the thread back through as many beads as possible then tie the two ends in a knot and apply some jewellery glue.  When the glue is dry, snip the excess threads off.

Step 10

Thread one of the remaining beads on to the headpin and put the headpin through the drill hole in the loose bead that you put into the middle of the beady bead.  Yours will look neater because you've snipped the threads.

Step 11

Put the final bead on the top of the headpin, make a wrapped loop and you're ready to use your beady bead.  Simples!

They look nice as earrings

or in a necklace or bracelet

Happy weaving!

Here's the link to other lovely Handmade Monday posts.