Chain Maille Christmas Ornament Tutorial 2
I have another chain maille Christmas ornament cover ebook tutorial to add to the list. This one is quite different from my last one; it’s heavier, more intricate and simply gorgeous when done!
Maille Ornament Cover – Japanese Style
This tutorial shows an ornament made with a Japanese style of chaining. If you’re not familiar with this technique, it’s joining jump rings in horizontal and vertical patterns. The main pattern is the Japanese 12 in 2, with some connections using fewer rings.
This is a heavy, substantial ornament cover! It’s not for the faint of heart or someone who wants instant gratification. It uses a lot of jump rings, many in small sizes. However, the results are breathtaking — my photography skills do not do the ornament cover justice. 🙂
If you’ve got as couple pair of flat nose pliers and a round nose plier, that’s all the tools you’ll need. Well, aside from the jumps rings and ornament!
What You Will Learn
Here’s what you will learn in this tutorial for making Christmas ornament covers.
- The pattern and instructions for linking the rings to form the ornament cover.
- How to make beaded dangles.
- Instructions for simple loops.
- Tips if you’re using a larger ornament, to make sure it fits properly (very important)!
It’s really a lot of fun, and it’s something that you will treasure for years and years to come.
The ebook tutorial contains 19 pages of instructions, with 38 full-color photos with close-ups.
How to Get the Tutorial
It’s very simple. All you need to do is click the “Add to Cart” button below. (How’s that for easy?) 🙂
At that point (through the magic of the internet), you’ll be whisked to your checkout of $6 for this ebook tutorial.
Then you’ll get download instructions for the tutorial. Keep in mind that this isn’t a paper copy that gets delivered by snail-mail, but a PDF file that you get your hands on(so to speak) instantly.
Go ahead and order, then get ready to make your own chain maille Christmas ornaments. They will be sure t bring ooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs from everyone who sees them!
Flower Chain Video Tutorial
This flower chain video tutorial shows you how easy chain maille can be. It’s something that is a little different from simply chaining jump rings together. Instead, the rings form little rosettes, which in turns gives the flower chain its name.
You don’t need a lot of different rings (unless of course you want to get more intricate). The demonstration you’ll see shows two different colors and sizes of jump rings, but you can do it all in one size and color if you like. The flower chain is very versatile!
Although I do mention AR in passing, this chain mail pattern can use a pretty wide range. Normally, I say anything over AR of 4 can be used
What You Will Need (Supplies)
You’ll need jump rings in 6mm inside diameter 18 gauge, and 5mm inside diameter 18 gauge rings for the bracelet.
You will also need a clasp of some sort; I have used an “S” clasp, but you can use whatever you wish.
There is also a set of earrings that you can make with this same weave; I show the photo and supplies after the video tutorial.
Earring Info and Supplies
The earrings are made with the same basic flower chain pattern. Seeing as I prefer earrings to be as light as possible, I have made them with 20 gauge rings instead of 18 gauge. I have also only used three rings instead of four rings for each flower rosette.
Also, the AR of the rings I selected is only about 4.5, which is another reason I decided to use fewer rings in each flower. But, if you like, you can certainly use four rings per flower.
To make the earrings, you will need the following supplies:
- 1 pair of earring findings; I used gold-filled.
- Jump rings, Fuchsia, 20 gauge 4mm inside diameter
- Jump rings, Gold, 20 gauge 4mm inside diameter
- 2 gold-plated headpins
- 2 Swarovski bicone beads, 6mm, crystal AB2x
- 2 Swarovski bicone beads, 5mm, rose
- 2 Swarovski bicone beads, 4mm rose
Although I show five flowers per earring, you can make as many or as few as you like. If you don’t want to include the Swarovski beads or use different beads, that’s fine too — after all, these are your earrings! 🙂
Tutorial – Chain Maille Ornament Covers 1
Here’s a tutorial for chain maille ornament covers. It’s a little different than your standard beaded ornament cover, and something you definitely don’t see every day! Jump rings rule the day, although there are also beaded dangles for a little extra “bling”. They are perfect for your own tree or ornament stand, or a wonderfully unique gift to give to others.
Jump Ring Ornament Covers
While you may need quite a few jump rings for these covers, you don’t need a whole lot of sizes/gauges. If you don’t have the sizes and colors listed, with a little experimentation you can use the directions as a guideline for what you do have on hand.
If you’ve got as couple pair of flat nose pliers, a round nose plier and a pair of wire cutters, you have everything you need as far as tools.
Just add jump rings!
What You Will Learn
Here’s what you will learn in this tutorial for making Christmas ornament covers.
- The pattern and instructions for linking the rings to form a netting (easier than you probably think).
- How to create the two different types of straight chains.
- How to make beaded dangles.
- Instructions for simple loops and wrapped loops.
- Ideas for making your own variations!
It’s really a lot of fun, and it’s something that you will treasure for years and years to come.
How to Get the Tutorial
It’s very simple. All you need to do is click the “Add to Cart” button below. (How’s that for easy?) 🙂
At that point (through the magic of the internet), you’ll be whisked to your checkout of $6 for this ebook tutorial.
Then you’ll get download instructions for the tutorial. Keep in mind that this isn’t a paper copy that gets delivered by snail-mail, but a PDF file that you get your hands on(so to speak) instantly.
Go ahead and order, then get ready to make your own chain maille Christmas ornaments. They will be sure t bring ooooooohs and ahhhhhhhs from everyone who sees them!
Jump Rings for Maille — Part 2
I already discussed precious metal jump rings for maille, so this time let’s talk about the base metal rings. Aside from what they are made of, is there anything else you need to think about? In a word…yes! 😉 So let’s talk about the differences in base metal jump rings and precious metal rings.
AWG, SWG and You
You probably are familiar with wire gauge, which is the thickness of the wire. For jewelry, the gauges most often used are 16, 18 and 20. So far so good, right? Well….there’s this little thing called standards for measuring wire. And the two main standards — AWG (American Wire Gauge) and SWG (Standard Wire Gauge) aren’t exactly the same for all gauges.
Yep, I just ruined your day, LOL. 😉
OK, what does this mean anyway? It means that depending on the kind of jump rings you are buying, you may have to think twice about what you’re getting!
When it comes to jewelry findings, you normally see things measured based on AWG. However, in the world of chain maille jump rings, you may also run into SWG measurements, which are thicker.
Example: for a wire that is 18 gauge, AWG says it’s 1mm in diameter. However, the SWG measures it as 1.22mm in thickness. This obviously makes a big difference in AR, since 1.29mm is a size 16 in AWG.
So the moral of the story is….know if the jump rings you are thinking about buying are measured as AWG or SWG.
Chain Maille Jump Rings – Base Metals
OK, enough about gauges – let’s talk metals. Base metals are basically anything except those designated as precious (and in the chain maille jewelry world, precious means silver, gold, niobium and titanium.)
The most common base metals used in jewelry are copper, brass, aluminum, bronze and stainless steel. One thing these all share is that they are pretty inexpensive! But each metal has pluses and minuses, as you will see.
Copper
Copper is a relatively soft metal, which makes it easy to manipulate in the thicker gauges. The two main ways you can get copper jump rings are “natural” (not treated in any way) and enameled.
Enameled copper rings are colorful — just about any color you can think of is available. The down side is that since the enameling is just a surface treatment, it can be scratched. The bracelet you see to the right is made from enameled copper.
Natural copper is lovely, but it does oxidize pretty easily so you’ll have to spend some time getting rid of the tarnish (lemon juice and/or ketchup works well).
Brass
Stiffer than copper, brass comes in two main “colors”. One is regular brass, which has a bright yellow hue. The other is called red brass, which is a more golden color (not as “brassy”). The red brass is also sometimes called nu gold, jeweler’s brass and merlin’s gold.
Brass also tarnishes easily, so keep that in mind. And also keep in mind that by the time you get to 16 gauge, the jump rings are going to be more difficult to manipulate.
Aluminum
Aluminum is very popular for chain maille as it is both inexpensive and light. It also comes in a wide variety of anodized colors. (Reminder; anodization is a surface treatment and can be scratched.) Bright aluminum is a bright silvery color, and works really well. Just make sure you do not get regular aluminum, as you will get black rub-off all over yourself.
I mentioned that the aluminum rings are lightweight, which makes them great for earrings. But if you like jewelry with a hefty feel, this isn’t the metal for you. On the other hand, it means that you can make something large and still keep it comfortable. For example, a dragonscale collar in silver would be on the verge of being uncomfortably heavy, while the same collar in aluminum would feel much lighter.
Bronze
Don’t confuse bronze the metal with bronze-colored. For example, there are bronze colors in enameled copper and anodized aluminum. But bronze the metal is an alloy of copper and tin. It has a reddish-gold color, and as you might imagine it tarnishes (because of the copper content).
Bronze is a stiff metal, so once again it will be tough to manipulate in the heavier gauges. It can be a little on the brittle side if you over-work it.
Stainless Steel
Really popular for men’s jewelry, stainless steel is heavy and has a nice shine to it. But don’t make the assumption that stainless or surgical steel are hypoallergenic, as they may not be – it depends on the amount of nickel used in the alloy. And it’s usually pretty tough to find that out.
Steel is really stiff, and if you work in gauges thicker than 20 gauge, you’ll need heavier-duty pliers. Not to mention a few muscles!
Gotta Get Rings
One more thing to think about is if you are buying these jump rings from a jewelry supplier is this: is the size of the ring based on the outside diameter or inside diameter. After all, an 18 gauge inside diameter jump ring is roughly an 8mm outside diameter. While a 6mm outside diameter is about a 4mm inside diameter. Biiiiiiiig difference!