Low-Key Handmade Exchange signal boost / chain maille pics

[cahn]

karanguni is hosting a Low-Key Handmade Exchange. The idea is to "work down your existing stash of materials and/or get motivated to make something by doing something small and nice for someone. Whatever you offer to create shouldn't stress you out either financially or emotionally, but rather be a nice, low-key way for you to engage with your discipline of choice!" Anyone is welcome! I think there are a couple of people who read this DW who might be interested? (but maybe you knew about it already)

This is… exactly the kind of event I need, as I personally have a rather large stash of shiny anodized aluminum rings I've used to make chain maille bracelets, but lately I haven't been making any. (The anodizing process, interestingly, is FDA approved for cookware — not that I'd recommend eating with them or eating them, mind you — and although it can be scratched with steel, it's fairly hard.)

I thought I'd show you some of what I've made :)


The "Byzantium" weave is a classic one and is one of my favorites :D It's complex enough that my hands don't get bored while making it, but simple enough that I can do it while my mind is concentrating on something else, and it looks really neat (in my opinion). Would be happy to make this particular weave for the swap because I know I'll be able to get it finished even if I get really busy. [Can make Byzantine 18G for swap - have silver-tone, purple, light blue, blue rings]

The above is one I made for E. in a "Frozen" theme. It's a little hard to tell, but it's got silver-toned, light-blue, and bright-blue rings, 18G rings. (Well, I think of it as a "Frozen" theme, anyway. E. doesn't care about that kind of thing.)

Here's a little bit I got started with tinier 20G gold-toned aluminum rings. I find 20G very cute :D Some people apparently make this weave in 22G which I don't think I'd be able to handle! [Can make Byzantine 20G for swap - gold tone rings only]

Here's a different weave. I believe this is a variant of Half Persian but I'm not sure, oops. 18G rings. (ETA: I looked it up and it is Sandstone. I think I would also be able to make this variant for the swap.) [Yeah, sure. Can make Sandstone or similar for swap - have 18G silver-tone and blue only.]

[No picture yet, but I can make a very thin Dragonscale variant for swap -- about half the width of the one with the picture below. Blue small rings and mixed color large rings only.]

I have almost wholly made 1D-ish chains; my only foray into 2D chain maille has been because E. asked me to make her a helmet. It's only about half finished. In order to make it less work for me, it's a very loose weave and therefore wouldn't actually function as chainmail in any kind of meaningful way, but it's still pretty cool. (These rings are raw/uncoated aluminum and not as shiny as the other stuff; the anodized didn't come in large enough sizes.) 16G rings.

The copper scales on it E. bought when I bought the rings, and she's added them on herself. (I told her I was willing to make the helmet for her, but if she wanted scales she had to put them on herself.)

This weave is called Dragonscale and I am not making it for the swap (unless I figure out how to do it more quickly between now and Jan 31 [Edit: I have figured it out; I can make one that is about half this width]) because it takes forever. (There are two different sizes of rings involved; the smaller ones are blue.) Anyway, A. asked for a "randomly-colored" Dragonscale bracelet, so here is my attempt, although it is going veeeeeery sloooooowly. 18G and 22G rings; the 18G rings are larger than the ones used for Byzantium. (One of the kind of annoying things about doing chain maille is that different weaves require different "aspect ratios," the ratio of the (internal) diameter of the ring to the diameter of the wire. So to do three different weaves you might have to get three different sets of rings with different aspect ratios!)

I have some other fun bits of different weaves that I wanted to show you guys but I'm not entirely sure where I put them — I found them in E's room and took them away so they wouldn't be lost, and now I've lost them :( I suppose I should have left them in E's room… Anyway, if I find them I'll post again :)

Comments

[zdenka]

That's not a criticism! They're shiny and pretty. :) I'm fond of shiny things myself.

[cahn]

Oh! I didn't think it was a criticism, sorry if it came across that way! I just... really like shiny things :) Also, I adore your icon and that is what I would want to be if I were an animal DW icon :D

[zdenka]

Haha, thanks! I'm fond of it myself. I got it from an old icon comm on LJ.