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Thursday, August 9, 2018

Chainmaille: Variations

For today's post, I thought I'd share two very different pairs of chainmaille earrings:  one pair that looks like they might have been worn during the Renaissance--or earlier--and one pair that's much more modern.

The cool thing is that both pairs of earrings are made with the same chainmaille weave, called European 4-in-1 (below),  a simple and familiar weave.  Woven tightly of small metal rings into large flat pieces, it was
the armor worn by medieval European fighters (you may have noticed it in just about every sword and sorcery film or TV show).  (In ancient Asia, chain mail armor was made of a totally different and beautiful weave, which is a story for another day.)

Because I specifically wanted these earrings (below) to look like they could have been worn centuries ago, I needed the triangular chainmaille pieces to hang like banners, so I made the spiraled "hanger" pieces


and hung the chainmaille triangles from their widest section, the seven woven rings.  I made 4-mm mother-of-pearl dangles and attached them to the outer edges of the chainmaille, and then fashioned wire-and-bead links to connect my decorated "Renaissance Banners" to matching ear wires. 

My second pair of earrings are completely different:  small and sleek and simple, sterling silver and midnight blue. The chainmaille part of these earrings was made using the same weave as the first pair, but with one fewer row of rings, stopping at six, naturally making the earrings smaller and slimmer.   

Ingredients:  Sterling silver rings, sterling silver wire, sterling silver ear wires, and deep blue polymer clay spikes by Jon Burgess





Thanks so much for reading!  I'll see you in about two weeks. 💗 

Meridy (Two Trees Studio)
xo

14 comments:

  1. I love both styles of chainmaille earrings! Beautiful!

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  2. both are beautiful Meridy...

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  3. Love both Meridy but the first pair the most ❤️

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    1. Thanks so much, Suhana! I have a soft spot in my heart for those earrings, I have to admit--they were a lot of fun to put together. 💗

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  4. These are fabulous! So different. But both so elegant

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  5. Amazing earrings Meridy. You must have the patience of an angel to work with these tiny jumprings.

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    1. Aww, thank you, Janine! I have good tools, which really do help...but learning how to close the rings (and it's a process) makes a difference. After a while, you don't fret over it; you just do it. It's Zen-like in that regard, but on the other hand it's also just like any other skill. 💗

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  6. My comments keep disappearing, hopefully I'm not duplicating myself over and over...sorry.

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    1. Hi, Loralee! I've had problems with comments disappearing a lot here lately too. This one made it though, no worries! 💗

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    1. Lindsay, yes! Small-ring-size chainmaille pieces are very slinky and feel great against your skin. In really small sizes (micromaille), you'd swear you were touching fabric rather than metal.

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