I’ve been working on my new design for this year’s state fair competition, and I’m pretty pleased with the result. It’s a bracelet in gold fill and sterling silver that features mobius “flowers” captured in a larger ring, with the flowers linked by a small byzantine weave chain. (I really need to think of a better name for this design!)
First, a picture, and then I’ll write about the design.
This makes blue ribbon #6.
After a year off with no state fair, I entered my Elfweave bracelet with the Hubei turquoise cabochon in the 2021 state fair. I really love the look of this bracelet, and I felt pretty confident about getting a ribbon (hopefully blue, right?). I received the blue ribbon.
As always, there isn’t enough competition in the Chainmaille-Advanced class section. I’m making my annual plea: Please, if you make chainmaille, enter the competition! Not only will you have the chance to show off your pieces but also people will have the opportunity to see just how beautiful chainmaille jewelry can be.
This Elfweave-Turquoise bracelet is a beautiful piece and quite different from my other jewelry. Most pieces feature the chain itself, but this one features the box clasp and turquoise, with the Elfweave chain as a support. Basically, this bracelet is about the stone, not the chain.
If this one sells, I will make more of this style. However, I think I would like to make similar bracelets with smaller cabochons. This one is very large, nearly 60 carats, and the overall piece is quite heavy.
But wow!
See more images and information my Etsy shop.
Everyone in my family has a chainmaille bracelet. My daughter calls us the “chain gang.” When we go anywhere together, we always make sure we’re wearing our jewelry.
My daughter just turned 17 years old. Among other “boring” gifts, such as clothes and girly cosmetic stuff, we wanted to make her something special. My wife and I talked about designs and decided to make a necklace that would make a matching set with her bracelet.
Here’s what we came up with:
(Sorry for the crappy first picture. When highly polished, sterling silver in the sunshine is hard to photograph. It’s just too dang shiny!)
The necklace length is just a bit over 16 inches. The main chain is JPL is sterling silver (18 gauge wire, 3 mm inner diameter rings). My wife did that part. The gold accent has two Byzantine knots, which match her bracelet, with a 4-ring mobius coil in the center. I welded the rings around the clasp, rings in the mobius coil, and rings connecting the centerpiece to the chain. It should last a lifetime, and if it doesn’t, I know a guy who can fix it.
A single Byzantine knot, like in her bracelet, didn’t seem to be enough of a centerpiece accent for a necklace, which is why we decided on this design instead.
Here’s an image of the necklace and bracelet together.
My daughter loves it. (Phew!) She says she will wear it every day, which is about how often she wears the bracelet. She is a fairly petite girl herself, and at 16 inches, the necklace hangs perfectly for her, neither high up against her neck nor dangling down too low–stylish and beautiful without being sexy. Perfect for her.
Happy birthday, daughter!
My latest design, and I am super excited about it. I made a broad bracelet using Elfweave (stabilized), and then had a local Navajo jeweler build the centerpiece based on my design and with my Hubei Turquoise stone. The result is pretty amazing!
(Originally posted on my old web site in 2014)
For several months now (in 2014!), I have been wanting to make a micromaille JPL chainmaille bracelet. Micromaille is chainmaille that is typically at or below 3.0 mm inner diameter. It’s little. Very little.
The problem, however, is that I didn’t have any way to coil wire into rings that size. The smallest coiling mandrel on the Pepe Ring Maker is 2.5 mm. I have made some nice JPL pieces in 2.5, but I couldn’t go any smaller.
Problem solved! I am using a 2.0mm knitting needle in my Pepe wire coiler, and a spool of 22 gauge (AWG) wire. I just stick the needle in the crank, load some 22 gauge wire, and start winding coils. I didn’t know if I would be able to cut the coils into rings, but they cut just fine, thus leaving me with a nice pile of micromaille jump rings for a very thin chain. Continue reading “Super-fine Chain Bracelet”
It’s almost impossible to believe. Five years have passed since I last made a video gallery of jewelry on Desert Chains. At the time, this site was “Chain of Beauty.” (Chain of Beauty still exists, by the way, but the website redirects you to here.)
We had a long weekend last weekend, and I took advantage of the time to create the 2020 video gallery. Lots of new pieces and designs.
So, with no further ado, here’s the 2020 Desert Chains jewelry gallery.
Music: “Between Us and Them” by Ulrich Schnauss. Listen to the entire piece on YouTube here.
Well, I did it again. The judging for the 2018 state fair jewelry competition just finished, and I picked up another blue ribbon. That’s 4 years in a row now. I’ll post a picture of the bracelet with its ribbon once the fair opens and I can take the picture.
This year, I entered an original design that combines 2 classic weaves, plus a little bead work. Here’s the piece:
I have my bracelet ready for the 2017 State jewelry competition, which will be held during the state fair. So far, I’m 2 for 2 with blue ribbons.
This year, I’m submitting a fantastic bracelet featuring the dragonscale/ mermaid weave. This advanced design has larger rings on the outside that face one direction and smaller rings on the INSIDE that face in the opposite direction, creating the appearance of fish (or dragon) scales.
The final result is absolutely stunning! I’m really pleased with how the gold inside rings complement the brighter silver rings and give the entire piece a deeper, richer appearance.
I will submit the bracelet on August 26th and find out the results a couple of weeks later.
Wish me luck! I feel really good about this bracelet, and it would be nice to pick up another ribbon.
(One thing I want to do before submitting is to get my models back so I can take a few pictures.)
On a side note, I have a little of the gold fill wire left over. I’m thinking about making another lovers’ knots bracelet to use it up. It might make a nice Christmas present for my niece.
