Links for chainmail patterns?

[dizzy]

Anybody know any links for free chainmail patterns/and or techniques?
Thanks!

[Thorondor]

http://www.artofchainmail.com/patterns/index.html
http://home.flash.net/~nymaz/chain/
http://www.arador.com/construction/index.html

There you go. Couple links that are still working out of my bookmarks What are you planning on making?

[Richard le Gris]

http://www.mailleartisans.org/ has a lot of useful stuff

[dizzy]

I want to make jewelry. Maybe when I get better, a shirt.

Thx for the links

[Cyric]

i think a shirt is way easier to do than jewelry.

[Thorondor]

I agree w/ Cyric...a shirt is much easier than jewelry. If you want to learn the different weaves, get yourself a nice hunk of wire, spin some springs, cut the links, then experiment away. When you start getting into the jewelry sized wire, it gets really delicate and you really need to know what you're doing because one little mistake can kill how a piece of jewelry would lay while a few mistakes in a suit of chain are easy to spot and fix...

~Þ~

[dizzy]

Thanks but I was thinking of making jewelry with rings that aren't so tiny, so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus smaller projects are easier since I tend to work a lot.

[Shrike Fletcher]

I've actually made quite a variety of chainmaille jewelry in the past. Here's my advice:

Learn the Basics

First of all, if you can find a book like "Handcrafting Chain and Bead Jewelry" by Scott David Plumlee, get it! It will help teach you the basics of wrapping rings, how to choose the correct gauge and size rings for your project, how to open and close rings correctly, and some good jewelry weaves. If you can't get a book, try looking around online for these skills.


Getting the Equipment

At minimum, you will need two flat-nosed pliers. Try to find ones without a grip, as it can damage the rings.

Other materials you might need:

• Between 22 and 18 gauge wire - if you're making your own rings
• Side cutters - if you're making your own rings
• Round-nosed pliers - for adding dangling beads with wire
• Very thin wire - to string beads
• Beads - to attach to your jewelry or to capture in a weave
• Jump ring closing tool (ring) - my favorite piece of equipment. Great for speed-weaving and closing up easy sheet weaves.

Buying or Making Rings

I made my first several sets of rings, and recommend it to anyone on a tight budget. It's relatively easy to do, but hard to get jewelry-quality rings. This is great for practice. I would recommend just getting some steel 22 or 20-ish gauge wire if you're wrapping by hand as opposed to with a rig.

Once you're ready to buy rings, I heartily recommend http://theringlord.com as they have an amazing variety for you to play with and you can get whatever metal and AR you want. Particularly, any colored rings (like anodized aluminum or titanium) as well as scales are worth checking out for more interesting jewelry.


Weaves to work on first -- a quick google search should find you these:

European 4-in-1 (to teach the basics of the european family of weaves)
Gridlock (an easy variation on the european 4-in-1 to practice ring manipulation)
Japanese 6-in-1 (to teach the basics of the japanese family of weaves)
Box Chain (to get used to "3-D" or "round" weaves)
Byzantine (This is used in a lot of jewelry pieces you want to hold its shape)
Basic Spiral (Easy and very aesthetically appealing weave when twisted)

From there I would go onto whatever you see that looks neat to you and test out the Persian family of weaves. Flowers, Half-Persian 3-in-1, and hybrid weaves are probably my personal favorites. As long as your rings are well-cut and your ring manipulation skills are solid, you should eventually be able to learn any weave, no matter how difficult. It just may take some time and patience.

Never forget to make sure you have the right ring AR first; if you don't you may end up with a weave that won't hold its shape or a weave that is impossible to close.


Resources:

Unfortunately, I've lost most of my resources with the crash of my last computer. However, from a quick search, these two I've used before:
http://cgmaille.com/
http://www.mailleartisans.org/ --warning, some of the tutorials are extremely hard to follow. I would recommend learning the basics elsewhere and coming back once you're ready to experiment. However, the "links" section of this site is amazing and should help you find anything you need.


Sorry for the extremely lengthy post; hope it helps you out!

[dizzy]

Wow very helpful.

I actually bought a bracelet at the renaissance faire that inspired to actually make jewelry, though i've wanted to start chainmail for a while. They used EPDM rubber rings intertwinied with colored aluminum rings, making the item stretchy, like for a bracelet. Very clever. I found a site that sells rings fairly cheap. But there's also a Farm and Fleet in Woodstock (45min from me) I could buy wire and tools and such at.

Thanks so much!

[Thorondor]

What site did you find that sells links? Like Shrike said http://www.theringlord.com/ is where I got my bronze links from and was very happy with them...

If you go the wire route, you'll need to remember that you'll need to wind the wire and cut the links, which will more or less double your construction time and probably triple your frustration level if you're making a full suit of chain. I found mini bolt cutters worked the best for cutting links for me. If I was to make another suit of chain I'd buy already cut links both to save time and effort since I spent a fortune last time trying different things to cut the links apart. Nothing worked as well as the bolt cutters in the long run and they were the first thing I tried.

[dizzy]

www.artfire.com

Specifically the user on the site named nottoto.

Here's a link to some of the rubber rings, but from there you can find almost any kind. http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name ... id=1310607

[No'Vak]

I'm having such a horrible time visualizing how that jump ring works...

[Shrike Fletcher]

I'm having such a horrible time visualizing how that jump ring works...

You have to use other rings to connect it to the piece. It is impossible to make chain out of only rubber rings. The Ring Lord's rubber ring section explains their use pretty well if you poke around. They also are ridiculously cheaper, from what I can see (4x the value, approx. unless I'm understanding the pricing incorrectly)

[No'Vak]

Ohh that's what that tool thing is for?

[dizzy]

The ring lord is cheaper? Cool.

And ya you can't just have rubber rings. You have to attach them to metal rings.

[No'Vak]

I know this.

I was referring to that ring tool thingamajig.

[Shrike Fletcher]

Oh, oops, I totally misunderstood you. The ring tool slips on your finger like a normal ring, with the slots facing out. Then you grab a jump ring with your pliers in your dominant hand and place a side of the jump ring in the slot. Anchoring the jump ring against your finger and the tool, you can open or close a ring by torquing it from side to side. Does that make any more sense?

[No'Vak]

Definitely much more sense tyvm.