I've Moved!

I've permanently moved to daisykreates2.blogspot.com for more room to grow and experiment...

Come over to see what's new and exciting for the new seasons of daisykreates handcrafted chainmaille jewelry!

Tetra Orb Shoulder Duster Earrings

Another pair of Tetra Orb earrings.  These are addictive.  Fun to make, goes everywhere!

These are super long, shoulder duster long, perfect for the holiday gathering or a holiday day shopping trip:-)

The orbs are super airy.  The stainless steel rings are doubled on all "ears" around the orb for extra sturdiness.  Inside each orb is a SW crystal.  The long sterling silver chains and blue sequins put the total length at 4 inches!  Oh they sway, they sparkle, and they just wanna have fun, like you:-)

Specs:

Stainless steel rings, 0.8mm, ID 4.76mm, from B3.  SW crystals are 6mm style 5000 in clear AB.  Fine chains are sterling silver.  Sequins are.... well whatever small, sparkly thingy will do.  I picked violet blue here to match the blue sequins on my blue sweater top:-)

So, what's the color of your sequins sweater? :-)

Barrel Earrings

Barrels weave, or sometimes called Double Visions, is the 2-ring brother of Rhino Snorting Drano, or (RSD).  Yes, that's right.  No, I don't know the origin of the name.  When I do invent a weave of my own, I'll get to name it whatever I want too:-)

The material is anodized niobium rings; the color way is my mix of earth tones. The ear wire are of sterling silver with gold filled balls.

The earrings measure at 2 inches long from top of ear wire to the last unit of "barrel", and  1/4 inch wide.

Specs:

Nb rings are 1.2mm, ID 3.4mm, from C&T Designs.

'33' Watch Bracelet - BSG Inspired

'33' - As in, "Every 33 minutes, the Cylons find us."

'33' is the very first episode of BSG season 1, and my favorite!  Talk about being on the edge of my seat, feeling the extreme fatigue of having no sleep for 5 days straight running for your life....  I was exhausted just from watching it.

front view

When I set out for a design that captures the episode, in my head I had the scenes of multiple watches, clocks, digital, analog, flashing, all marked at 33 minutes.  Do you see it?

back view

side view

Made in European 4-in-1 in circular form with Persian edging.  The bright aluminum, copper, and bronze rings give this 'watch face' an interesting asymmetry.  It's clearly not half-half, but more of a 5/7 split.  The front and back sides are slightly different in looks because of the severe tension held by the double ring Persian edging.  I improvised the smaller rings on the outer rim to stabilize the plane.

Now comes the fun part, the watch band.  I want something that looks a lot like a common metal watch band, while still coordinates with the watch face.  I stayed within Euro family but this time in scale form as in 8-in-2, plus small double ring connectors running down each edge.

However, the rings used here are with much smaller ARs than required for typical Euro 8-in-2.  That's why the left strip slightly overlap the right strip, allowing the center strip to look more dominant.

Then comes the closure.  I tried so many, but none looked right.  They are either too tight, too loose, too flimsy, or too bracelet-like.

As this "watch" sat in idle for months waiting for a closure, I stumbled upon a box clasp on Rio Grande.  This simple box clasp not only is the perfect size, 2-connector style, but it has "cut corners', or octagon shaped!!  That's totally BSG!

btw, I had tried to make a box clasp myself using wire.  Not working, even with memory wire.  The spring mechanism is the key to a box clasp, and I still haven't found a way to duplicate that function with wire.  A bit disappointed... Well, no fear.  As a prototype in shape and size, I'm still pleased.

So, what do you think?  Does it look like a watch that's permanently pointing at 33?

Postscript:  Since the watch face has sat on my table for a while, it's starting to tarnish naturally.  Notice the slightly different colors of bronze and copper?  The large double rings are bronze and tarnish bit slower than copper in the back.  Didn't plan on it, but now I know:-)

Note to readers:
I create the BSG-inspired line of jewelry solely as a challenge to myself to design/create within a theme. I'm fascinated by the storyline and totally enjoyed watching the entire series from day 1 back in 2003. These jewelry pieces are not endorsed by anyone related to BSG, and are not intended to infringe upon any of BSG rights. I'm just an admirer showing appreciation for the best TV program EVER! If any official BSG representative feels otherwise, please let me know; the last thing I want from this line is to upset the BSG creation.

Poinsettia Bracelet

A lovely holiday trinket for your wrist!

This single chain bracelet, done in Jens Pind Linkage 3 weave and its What-If variant, presents the perfect setting for spots of green and red, just like Poinsettia.

This is my second JPL What-If, after my "Are You Alive?" bracelet, which is a small-small-big pattern.  The Poinsettia bracelet spreads out the big rings farther apart, a 4+1 repetition here.

I had originally used only red rings, but the effect wasn't as good as "Are You Alive?".  But now, these spots of green and red pairs are perfect, aren't they?

The bracelet is made with bright aluminum, sectioned by green and red anodized aluminum rings.  I added an extension for adjustments between 7 to 8 1/4 inches, and a little red/green mobius flower knot at the end to keep the bracelet from rolling around the wrist.

Not much else can be so dainty and festive at the same time, if you don't mind me say so:-)

Tetra Orb Earrings

This is a pair a earrings you'll want to wear everyday! They are light weight, fun, and swaaaag along with your every step.

I use bright aluminum jump rings to construct the Tetra Orbs and the short chains.  Inside each orb, I placed a 6mm Swarovski crystal in Capri Blue.  The ear wires are surgical steel.  The pair measures exactly 2 inches long from tip of ear wire to bottom of orb, and each orb is 3/4 inch across from ear to ear.

Specs:

All bright aluminum rings; any small rings will most likely do for the chains; the orbs will require rings of AR 6.5 and up.  The gauge used here is 18swg, so 1.2mm.  The inside bead can be fairly big, so long as it will fit.  I won't use beads that are too too small, cuz they'll fall out, obviously:-)  However, if you string several small beads onto a wire or large AR jump ring, you could stuff the rings of beads inside just as you would with one large single bead.  Cool, huh?!

The Kimiko Sisters

Asynchronous Orbits Earrings

Cute and fun!  My Asynchronous Orbits Earrings are one of a kind; well, for now, until I get my hands on some more anodized niobium rings and a few pairs of big and small silver rings:-)

The earrings are a study in Mobius weave.  You get a chainammille mobius when you keep threading the next ring thru the common center of all previous rings.

Most mailler use the same size rings to construct a mobius.  This simplest form of weaving can create fantastic chains and sheets.  But I was thinking, what if the rings are not the same size, or not even the same gauge?  Can they still form mobius?  If so, what would it look like?  It's often this kind of thinking that gets me in trouble; or in this case, stumble into an intriguing pattern.

Not obvious at the first glance, the silver rings may look like stylized rose buds.  Since these are earrings, those who are wondering can't easily see close enough to dissect the weave.  Unless they look real close; but then, like my beading teacher Liz Smith said, "If you're going to look that close, you'd better be buying me dinner first!"

Specs:

Anodized niobium rings from C&T Designs, WD 1.0mm, ID 3.4mm.  Sterling silver rings are spares from Spiderchain's Serpentine necklace kit, WD 1.6mm for the big one, 1.2mm for the smaller ones.  The actual ID doesn't matter much here; the key is they must not be the same sizes while they're not too far apart either to maintain a mobius' center.

Kimiko Necklace

Kimiko, name of a lovely little lady in a lovely little city in a lovely little colony.  Yep, if you're a die hard BSG fan like me, you'd know what I'm talking about:-)

In case you're not, I won't hold it against you, just maybe a little sad that you missed out on the best story ever on TV...

OK, anyway, let's start over.

Kimiko is a lovely little pendant, in all shades of fuchsia strung on a lovely little sterling silver chain.  Done in Japanese weave pattern, this sphere shape is also known as Japanese Dodecahedron 5-in-2.  Its large inner chamber is perfect for a little hidden treasure, such as a clear Swarovski® crystal that, when light passes through it, sends out sparkles of pink, violet, and purple. Additionally, I mixed in a few sterling silver rings on the surface of the sphere, to echo the sterling venetian box chain.  This is one lovely little trinket you'll want to see and be mesmerized every time you wear it!

Specs:

Anodized niobium rings in fuchsia mix, WD 1.0mm, ID 3.4mm from C&T Designs.  Sterling silver rings are also 1.0mm, ID 3.2mm, hand cut by me with my trusty jeweler's saw.  Inside the sphere is an 8mm Swarovski® crystal, faceted rondelle (5040) in clear 2xAB.  The chain is a US-made, 24", 1.2mm venetian box chain.

Thank you for stopping by. See you again soon!



p.s. Just in case you're still wondering what I was babbling about BSG: I'm designing a line of BSG inspired jewelry.  I was fascinated by the storyline and totally enjoyed watching the entire show. These jewelry pieces are not endorsed by anyone related to BSG, and are not intended to infringe upon any of BSG rights. I'm an admirer, showing appreciation for the best TV program EVER! If any official BSG representative feels otherwise, please let me know; the last thing I want from this line is to upset the BSG creation.
 
So, starting from the pilot (see "Are You Alive?"), with each episode, I create a piece of daisykreates-original handmade jewelry with inspirations taken from the name of the episode, a line in the episode, a scene, an act, or whatever.  The Kimiko necklace is a tribute to the little satellite from "Water" of Season 1, where Boomer found the precious, although frozen, water hidden deep in layers of ice.  Crashdown named the satellite "Kimiko, after a lovely little lady in a lovely little city in a lovely little colony!"  Now you know:-)

Horsefeathers Earrings

Horsefeathers is a weave by Corvus, as well as the MWW weave challenge for Oct. 2010; it's an interesting variation of Half Persian 3-in-1, not complicated at all, but it did take me a while to figure out where the extra should go.

Once I confirmed that I got it thru the right "eyes", it went pretty fast.  But then, I also realized how different the 3 sides look, and that it's not going to be easy to keep it from rolling around if made into a bracelet.

Sooo.... I started looking for ways to stabilize it, something that will still show off its 3 different looks from top, side, and bottom.  And here's what I got: a pair of earrings with short strips of the weave connected top side inwards, does that make sense?  I mean, what shows as the outer rim of the earring is what's considered the bottom side of the weave, and the top side of the weave (where the extra rings are added) becomes the inside edge of the earring.  It's really not that bad; I should have taken a WIP picture..

Specs:

All bright aluminum rings, 1.2mm, AR 4.91 (except the smaller connector rings), makes for a pair of good size and light weight earrings.

My Pet Dragon

My very own pet dragon! Isn't he the cutest?!  This is my first try at multi-weave, semi-free form chainmaille.  Multi-weave for the combination of Dragonback, Byzantine, Box, and Mobius; semi-free form for improvising the neck and adding the paws.  I followed the fantastic tutorial by Derailed on MAIL.  The step by step instructions are easy to follow, lots of pictures and arrows pointing at where to add rings, that's how I like to read tutorials :-)  BTW, this is Derailed's dragon that got me hooked, cute and ferocious!

The tutorial describes the main body with scales.  I added the paws, only because all the dragons that I grew up with (yes, I grew up with dragons, in movies, paintings, novels) always have paws.  They also have whiskers and antennas, but I don't know how to add those yet...  I'd imagine some wire work would do it, like the way Corvus does hers (check out her copper dragon here, specially the tongue!)

Oh, and my dragon also wears shoulder pads and hoop earrings.  Very fashionable:-)  Can you see the earrings?  Big old double hoops!  The shoulder pads/cape is a slight variation from the tutorial. I learned it from Derailed's other maille critters, check them out here, seriously awesome!

OK, back to my guy; he's flexible enough to curl up for nap.  The neck moves very well; the body section from neck to belly is kind of stiff compared to rest of the body, my guess is because I fussed so much over the shoulder pads that I added a few too many rings.  Anyhow, he'll curl up all right, even chase after his own tail:-)  Awww, the poor thing is pooped from all the jumping and posing all day; it's a lot of hard work to look so adorable:-)

Specs:

All rings are stainless steel, WD 1.2mm, 3/16" ID from C&T Designs, and 5/32" ID from Blue Buddha (F18 SSTL); scales are bright aluminum also from Blue Buddha.  I did have to use 2 larger rings (1/4" ID) to include the key ring into the box weave at his jaws.  That's it.  Not very ring hungry, but my hands were totally out of commission for a while (Advil helped:-)

Oops!

That's the name of this weave, Oops, although I'd say there's nothing oops about it; in fact, it's now my current favorite weave, so addictive, can't stop once started, that's how this bracelet got to 8 1/2" long...

Oops is the a.k.a. name of European 4-in-1 Unbalanced.  It's best looking when done in tight ratio with fine rings.  It's also obviously a very ring-hungry weave, and more time consuming than most other European family weaves.  But the textile feel of the final work is well worth the effort.

Since I couldn't stop "Oopsing" (is that a word?), and I didn't have enough rings for another bracelet, so I made a finger ring to match:-)  Having joined a few other weaves, I was prepared to do battle on joining Oops while I found it surprisingly easy!  Almost like zipping up two sides of Peyote stitches, the rings that are supposed to meet up met up without any couching or coercing from me.  The only thing I'd say I would do over is using a finer gauge of rings which should allow for a closer size of finger ring.  As this ring goes, it's wee bigger than I wanted.  But to reduce it, it'll have to lose 2 columns of rings since Oops kind of works in pairs when joined end to end, and that would make the ring too small for me.

Now only if I had a professional mannequin hand display for my work...  My own hand is not doing justice to this fine set of "Oops":-)

Specs:

All bright aluminum rings from TRL, WD 1.2mm, ID 4.18mm, AR ~3.48 which is at the high end of AR for Oops.  Bracelet measures at 1" wide and 8 1/2" long, including the sterling silver slider clasp.  The finger ring is 7/8" long, and about size 9.

Three Amigos

Bracelet, finger ring, and pendant.

All made in double Vipera Berus (VB) pattern, plus a Vipera Star toggle ring.  The thought of so many "vipers" in one place is not my thing, but while in chainmaille, they make for wonderful chunky jewelry.

Vipera Berus is a very "weave-like" pattern, specially when done in double, they have very interesting flow.  When I look at it, my eyes just want to follow the rings, like they're just one long strand from beginning to end, which we know are not, but don't they look like they could have?

Anyway, I made the small donut a while back (check it out here) and I've been wearing it as a pendant off a simple black leather choker necklace.  Had always wanted to make a collection out of it just because I like the pattern so much.  Lucky me that Maillers Worldwide has VB as the September 2010 weave challenge; I took the opportunity to make a bracelet and a finger ring.

Now, if you can hold one of these guys in your hand, you'll feel how thick they are.  Most bracelet clasps would look wimpy for such a big boy.  To fashion something of similar thickness, I dug thru MAIL and found Vipera Star.  After a few experiments, this is the latest version.  Not sure if I'm totally happy with it, but it's a start and I can see potentials in other similar applications.  So, it's all good in the end:-)

Specs:

The finger ring (however unpractical) is niobium (Nb), WD 1.2mm, ID 6.4mm; the bracelet is bright aluminum (BA), WD 1.2mm, ID 4.18mm.  As to the Vipera Star toggle, I didn't write down the ring sizes, and I'm not about to take it apart to measure them now.  So next time, when I make another one, I'll have to remember to grab a pen and paper...

More photos here.

Très GSG

I name this one "Très GSG", because a typical GSG has 2 rows, this has 3 rows, so "very" GSG:-).   I know, the earrings look diamond-shaped, but they are none the less still GSG 3-by-3.

This set is a long way coming.  It's designed and made specifically for my dear friend Milly, who likes the colors of my Technicolor Bumble Bees bracelet, but wants a pattern bit more dense, about 3/4" wide, and suitable for daily wear.

Knowing our "day job" tends to require much time at the keyboard and frequent trips thru airport check points, I ruled out any rope or chunky pattern.  And it needs to be flexible, definitely flat in profile, enough weight so that you'll notice in case it's off the wrist, but not too much that you're constantly reminded of it being there.  Right, so that ruled out Dragonscale also.

After much net-surfing, I eventually decided to go with the vertical pattern of Half Persian 3-in-1 Sheet 6, which is essentially GSG.  Come to think of it, I suppose this is more of a GSG 3-columns, than 3-rows?  Anyway, the main body of bracelet and earrings was straight forward to weave, but the whole set took me a while to fit all the details together.  The fish toggle is one of a dozen incarnations before I settle on this version.  Nope, there is no religious connotations, at least I wasn't thinking of or planning on any such thing. I just prefer the double twist at the fish tail which matches the GSG pattern.  The wave toggle bar fits nicely with the fish motif; when the wave bar is perpendicular (to the fish body), it looks like a fish resting among sea weeds; when it's parallel, the fish is swimming in water.  OK, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it:-)

Specs:

Bracelet: All niobium (Nb) rings from TRL, WD 1.2mm, ID 6.6mm, except for rings at clasp points are 1.2mm, ID 3.83mm.  Toggle is handmade in 1.6mm full-hard Nb wire.  Bracelet width is just under 3/4"; total length is 7 1/2" while clasped on.

Earrings: Rings are grade 5 titanium (Ti) also from TRL, WD 1.2mm, ID 6.2mm. I switched to Ti rings for earrings because they are much lighter than Nb, easier on ears.  Ear wires are handmade from 1.0mm Nb wire, dotted with green AB seed beads.

The whole set was put together while in Nb's natural color, then anodized after all assembled. Here's what the bracelet looked like before the color bath.  A subtle, understated, almost hematite kind of color.  Not bad, huh?  I really liked it.  My SIL said, out of all the metal colors she'd seen so far, this is by far her favorite.  Yep, same here.  Maybe I'll make another one and leave it in its natural dark gray...

Interesting note on the earrings, the grade 5 Ti rings are anodized without chemical etching, so the colors are more muted than the Nb ear wires or the bracelet.  Nothing that affects the final appearance, just a fun fact, for geeks like me:-)

Ninja Ring

A secret ninja weapon you can wear on your finger!

OK, it's really just another Whirlybird with scales as outer edging.

I was playing with my new scales from B3, made a few flower looking thingy, very fun.  Then, I realized scales can be substituted for the outer edge of pretty much any weave.

Here's my first experiment in using scales in a Whirlybird. Just do a simple strip of 3-row European 4-in-1 with scales as the middle row; then connect end to end like a normal Whirlybird. I added an HP-like ridge on both side to tighten the whole thing, they also even out the scales so they spread like sun rays, or flower petals, whatever.

Finding an "app" for this bird took a while. From the first moment it was done, it screams "ninja secret weapon" to me; does it do that for you?  Any way, after a few tries, it settles as a finger ring.  Big, but still comfortable.  Definitely Not dainty:-)  Check out more pix here.

I wonder how a pair of them may look as earrings? Hum...

Scale Sakura

Scale maille sakura as hair stick ornament.

Based on the new scale flower design by TRL, with extra rings added on the outer edge out of necessity to stabilize the structure; my bronze rings must be slightly bigger than TRL's size.  This turned out to be very useful for attaching more rings, fringes, beads, etc.

Scales are very addictive, I must admit.  Before the whole scale flower thing, I hadn't thought about making anything with scales.  That was then, this is now.  Interesting how things take on their own paths...  Now I see scales are just like rings, bit flat, with off center, smallish holes compared to typical jump rings; sky's the limit, hahaha!

Specs:  Unanodized aluminum small scales, all 18 swg rings 1.2mm WD, in bright aluminum, anodized aluminum, bronze, and jeweler's brass.  Uh, that's about it; I can't remember the exact ring sizes, so many different sizes here; good way to use up leftover rings though.  Handmade double eye pins out of non-tarnish craft wire, also 1.2mm.  Size 5/0 triangle seed beads in silver-lined mauve.  Final sizes: flower 2" in diameter, full length of ornament 4" from the top connector ring to bottom of the longest fringe.

More pix here.

Steel Magnolia

I named this bracelet "Steel Magnolia", it got nothing to do with the movie (no, please don't tell me I can't use the name), just simply, big bold beautiful magnolia flowers made in steel.

As to the weave, it is called "Double Spiral Half Byzantine + 1". Hee hee, that's a long name, isn't it? But very accurate, just take a look: There's the double spiral, half of a Byzantine (is that aka. a unit of Box?), and + 1 holding onto the next half Byzantine. Or, I'll fess up, I just love everything with double rings:-)

I learned it from this tutorial by Onering on MWw. Mine is made with 1 mm x 1 mm square stainless steel rings from C&T Designs. These rings were originally sized for JPL5, but since I don't know JPL5 (not yet :-), I used it for this fun bracelet.

Would have been great if I had a different metal in same size to work with in this bracelet, maybe copper, kind of like the pictures in the tutorial. Maybe next time, I will. This is too much fun to make only one.

"Are You Alive?"

The first line spoken by Number Six in the 2003 Battlestar Galactica mini-series. The tight red dress, a callback to the red blinking light of Cylon raiders, gave me the idea of creating a line of BSG-inspired jewelry. Here's the first one.

This is a simple Jens Pind Linkage (JPL) bracelet in bright aluminum and anodized aluminum, both in 18 swg, 1.2 mm. By dramatically changing the AR for the last 2 rings in every other JPL, the look is totally different than traditional JPL3. Check out Zili's article, WHATIF - Variants of JPL, gives awesome insight to this often finicky weave.

Next in the BSG-line: 33. Stay tuned:-)

Edited, Sept. 1, 2010: I'm starting the BSG-inspired line solely as a challenge to myself to create with a theme. I'm fascinated by the storyline and totally enjoyed watching the entire series from day 1 back in 2003. These jewelry pieces are not endorsed by anyone related to BSG, and are not intended to infringe upon any of BSG rights. I'm just an admirer showing appreciation for the best TV program EVER! If any official BSG representative feels otherwise, please let me know; the last thing I want from this line is to upset the BSG creation.

Chainmaille Kabob

OK, so these are not really kabobs, they're Whirlybirds with odd size rings and frilly edges, but don't they look yummy on a stick?!!

Whirlybird is a fun pattern, lots of possibilities if you just let your mind go (which I do on a regular basis:-) Don't worry about the ring sizes, the metal, colors, or even the number of rings, you can always compensate with even more variations. Just wing it as you go:-)

In the picture, left to right: Rosetta edging, bi-cone shape with even rows on top and bottom, lop-sided by using different size rings on top and on bottom, HP 3-1 edging (this is a Persian Vortex by Clever Wench).

As we're talking making Whirlybirds, check out this video by FalloftheNoldor. Isn't that cool?! This is what got me started. The more I play with this simple European on the round, the more variations there are! Oh, of course, the tea pot by Clever Wench on Maillers Worldwide is my favorite; so adorable and totally out of box!

More Upcycled Aluminum Flowers

There are more aluminum cans than I have time to turn them into decoration for my hair and my garden:-)

I got couple of questions on if recycled aluminum flowers are sturdy enough as hair ornaments or for jewelry. To be honest, I can wear them OK probably because I'm fairly careful with these things. But just for fun, I tested folding aluminum sheet 3 times, kind of like folding table napkins, to form the base of each petal. They are for sure stronger and hold their shapes well even with me swapping rings back and forth to find the right sizes.

The neat thing about making your own petals (or scales, whatever you call them) is you can make them any shape you want! Leaf shape petals make tropical plumeria flowers, and heart shape ones make for lucky 4-leaf clovers, specially if you make them in all green!

Here are how they look as hair clip or barrette. I didn't file the edges on these either because I was so anxious to try out more shapes and more ways to use them, like on hair sticks, hair forks... Besides, I'm really planning to tie these to my trees out in my garden, trying to save some water!!! (hee hee)

Check here for more pix.