Creating a New Piece

I decided to create another necklace with Autumn colors. I have such wonderful beads and they are calling me to use them! I'm going to walk through the creation of a necklace step by step. Since this is going to be an Autumn themed necklace I decided to use a chocolate color chain. The first step was to decide how ling I wanted the necklace to be. I have decided to use chain draping, so I want the main part of the necklace to be relatively short. Almost a choker length, but nor quite that short, I decided on 17 inches in length. I added a chocolate clasp and connector ring to close the necklace. Since I want to attach draping chains, I measured out the distance that I wanted the chains to be from each other. I put the main connector directly opposite from the clasp. I then decided on adding two more connectors on each side of the clasp....after measuring the length, 3 inches apart was the correct length.

When you are done connecting your rings to the chain you should have 5 rings at three inches apart. Now the next step is to get the beads ready to be connected to the chain connectors. I decided to use some burgundy colored beads. I used five headpins, on four of them I used one 8mm bead and two 4mm beads; on the Fifth headpin I used one 10mm bead an 8mm bead and a 6mm bead. I made a loop to connect the headpins to my connector links.

I connected the headpin with the 10mm bead on the connector directly across from my clasp. The remaining headpins were connected to the connectors surrounding those beads.

Now you have all the beads connected to your chain, it is now time to start adding the draping chains. I measured out a good length of chain that would connect to the first two connectors surrounding the main bead piece, while leaving enough room for the main bead to hang within the loop.

Once this step was complete, I measured out four more chain lengths that were equal to be the draping cross chains. Two of the chains would connect from the last two connectors to the main bead and the other two chains would connect from the first two connectors to the clasp.

Here is the finished product!

Waiting...

I think they worst part about wanting to try a new idea when you don't have the supplies you need is the waiting....  I am waiting right now for some new jump rings to arrive. My hands are itching to try the new design I have found, but I don't have the correct ring sizes.  I find it hard to even start another design when I have something particular in mind. Nothing looks right or seems to be coming out right. I guess I will just have to wait and hope FedEx brings them today!!

Let me try to describe the piece I want to make. It is chain maille, it looks like metal lace in a wavy pattern. Kind of like a metal lace snake. I hope the rings I ordered work with this design, or I will have to scrap it.

I have to start thinking more about fall designs too. August is almost half way over, kids are going back to school and the fall items are out in the stores. I have some really pretty focal pieces to make some lovely necklace designs. I also have some beautiful fall color beads, greens and oranges, browns and burgundy. Such wonderful fall colors, I need to decide how best to incorporate them into my designs.

Of course Halloween is coming too, so I want to make some more fun designs using polymer clay. I love the fall, it is my favorite season. I grew up in New York, but live in California now. That is the one thing I really miss, the changing colors of fall. That's why I am so excited about making some new designs for fall. It will be my little piece of fall right here!

Chain Maille Complete!

The bracelet is finished! I am really happy with it!! I am amazed at how easily it came together. I would usually put something like this in my shop right away, but I love it so much that I will keep this one for me! 

Now that I know that I can do this kind of weave without any problems, I will surely be incorporating it into my jewelry. Fun!  I really look forward to trying this in many different ways. I did also play around with those chain maille earrings, and was able to fix the problems I was having by changing them up a little.

Here is the before earring and the earrings after I made some changes. I still need to shorten the crystal a little in that right earring, but this design seems to work a little better than the other. I have ordered some new rings and am waiting impatiently for them to arrive so I can play! :D  The problem with chain maille is that you need the rings to be specific sizes relative to each other for the design to work. I have a design pattern that is so pretty, but I don't have the correct ring sizes for it to hold together tightly enough to create the pattern I need. I have ordered some different size rings and hope to be able to create the pattern with them. Size is everything!

Chain Maille

I started thinking about working in chain maille again today. I first started working in chain maille about a year ago. I had tried to do something a little more complicated than just a basic weave, but I had not developed the skills to really do it well. I guess working with all sorts of other techniques this year from beading to working with    wire have really improved my skills. I brought out my chain maille supplies yesterday and at first attempted something easy. I made an earring design that I had seen in Classic Chain Mail Jewelry by Sue Ripsch. It is a cute design, but the earring keeps flipping around so that it doesn't sit the way it is supposed to.  I need to see if I can play around with it so that the rings stay in the right formation.

After I finished the earrings I decided to try to make a bracelet that I had attempted a long time ago.  It also comes from the same book. I was a little apprehensive about trying the design again, but I really liked it a lot, so decided to give it a shot. Amazingly the bracelet is coming together so smoothly! I am so excited!  I am half way finished with it now, and should finish it some time today. I will post a pic of it once I have it finished...