One Night at Denny's

This little guy begs for attention! Not only bursting with colors, but jingling like crazy too!

Yep, that's the name of the weave, One Night at Denny's. No clue how it came about, but sure is fun to make. I think the half-, semi-Trizantine knots look like little pots of flowers, see them?

I named this bracelet "One very jingly Night at Denny's" because it's crazily jingly. These bells are small, but high decibel. Too much for you? Well then take a look at the "light" version and the "quiet" version in here.

Specs:

All rings are 18 SWG, 1.2mm, from Blue Buddha's sample packs; they're great! I get so much use out of them. The big connector rings are bronze; "flower pots" are anodized aluminum, AR 4.1; bells are connected "Shaggy Loops" style with jeweler's brass rings. I don't know what material the bells are, just that they jingle all right.

And last but not least, the split tail Fish Hook is my own design, out of 16 SWG Nb wire, hand forged then anodized.

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Bath Time!!

Ducky and Bubbles! Bring back fond memories of childhood, don't they?

Bubbles weave is simple, fun, and quick to work up. If you can connect jump rings, you can do this. Just like many other basic weaves, this opens up lots of room for playing with variations, such as colors!

Speaking of colors, my camera is not doing justice to the beautiful colors of anodized Niobium rings. You really want to see these in person. Brilliant, mesmerizing, colors of rainbow, puts a smile on every face:-)

Specs:

Almost the same as Jellybean Barrels, large rings are Niobium, 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, AR 5.5; smaller rings are stainless steel from the sample pack of base metal rings of Blue Buddha; and the clasp is hand-forged and anodized by none others than yours truly out of 16 gauge natural Nb wire from TRL.

How about some more photos? Yeah? Click here!

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Jellybeans on Parade! Barrels of them:-)

Yep, that's the name of this weave, Jellybean Barrels! Or, to be exact, it's the Barrels version of Jellybean On Parade. Talk about boat loads of fun, isn't it? Just the name along puts everyone in a party mood:-) btw, this weave is aka Crow Chain; um, I'll stay with the parade for now:-)

OK, specs:

The inner 2x2 chain is 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, ID 6.6 mm, AR 5.5, stainless steel rings from C&T Designs; orbitals are same size Niobium rings from TRL; sterling silver toggle bought at San Gabriel Bead Company.

Check out more pix here.

Scary Weave

Relax, nothing scary here, just 2 new bracelets made in Scary Weave pattern. This is in response to Maillers Worldwide's July 2010 challenge.

I had wanted to try the weave for some time now; earlier attempts didn't go far; I had a hard time placing the connector rings. Base on the tutorial, I think it's meant to form a 3-tier step up or down, depending on how you look at it. But some photos of finished work out there show either a peak/valley style or multiple-ring-connection. I don't know which is which... They all look nice to me:-) Mine followed exact steps of the tutorial, and I must say, it's easier said than done. The Honey Bee connection was much easier.

Any who, here are the specs:

Copper and stainless steel square wire rings from C&T, 20-K, 0.8 mm x 0.8 mm, AR sized for HP4-1, so about 5ish. The stainless steel rings' AR seems wee bit smaller than copper; my attempt to make a "copper orbital on one side, steel the other" didn't work... it only flexed to the steel side. Photographed here is the remake on the copper/steel mix; it only comes up half a unit shorter than the all copper one.

RPI: This one measured 3 units per inch, so that makes it 21 rings per inch.

The heart clasp together with the catch rings are hand forged from 1.3 mm copper wire. I'm getting to be quite good at this:-)

The matching earrings came from extra units of the all copper bracelet; the ear wires are from 1.0 mm Niobium, handmade then anodized.

Enjoy the slide show!

W.I.B.U.T.

What I've been up to:

Most of these haven't been photographed yet. I moved on from one to next, wanting to test out as many weaves as I can; but there are sssooooooo many out there; it's like what they say: So many weaves, so little time:-)

More details to come soon; for now, just a quick glance:

• Shaggy loops (lower left corner) - bracelet and matching earrings in copper, brass, bright aluminum
• Persephone (lower right) - bracelet, with hand forged infinity toggle, in copper
• Tetra Orbs (upper leftmost) - 2 pairs of earrings in bright aluminum with Swarovski cube crystals

from here onto the right:

• Japanese Lace - 2 bracelets in stainless steel and anodized niobium
• GSG-3 rows - bracelet in natural niobium and matching earrings in natural titanium
  
• Half Persian (HP) 4in1 - bracelet in anodized niobium
• HP 4in1 - bracelet in anodized titanium
• HP 3in1 (top row, above all bracelets) - finger ring in anodized niobium
• HP 4in1 (top row, above all bracelets) - hair clip decoration in anodized niobium
  
• HP 3in1 Sheet 5 - 2 bracelets, 20 gauge and 18 gauge bright aluminum
• Oval (or Persian Dragonscale) - bracelet in 18 ga BA
• Roundmaille - bracelet in 18 ga BA
• Turkish Round - 2 bracelets, 18 ga and 16 ga BA
• Helm (or Parallel) - 18 ga BA
• Dragonscale - 18 ga BA
• JPL-3 - 16 ga BA
• JPL What-If variations - 2 bracelets, with 18 ga BA interspersed by larger ID anodized aluminum rings
• Double Spiral Half Byzantine + 1 - bracelet in 18 ga stainless steel square wire rings (this name is quite a mouthful, however the weave turned out like little flower basket, very cute!)
  

More Hourglass: Dodecahedron and Truncated Icosahedron

I was already plenty giddy with an Hourglass tetrahedron; then I read Ferrousknight's tutorial on M.A.I.L., and saw the photos in the gallery. Forget food and sleep, I've got to make myself some of these!!


Dodecahedron is a fun and rather quick one to make. I forget how many rings... only that I had to disassemble my first HG tetrahedron, reused the rings here; and then it's still not enough... Finally had to pull out my stash of 18 gauge copper wire to make up the rest. Ideal AR s/b about 7.5 to 8.3; my copper rings went way over that; can't find the right size mandrel around my house; this is the best I had at the time.

Stats:
Bright aluminum rings are R18 ALUM from Blue Buddha, 18 gauge, WD 1.2 mm, actual ID 9.5 mm, AR ~8. Copper rings are made from 18 gauge wire, WD 1.1 mm, ID about 10 mm, yeah, I know, bit too big, that's why they all have 3-ring connectors, compared to 2 on the BA rings.



Pretty neat, wouldn't you say?

OK, here's the truncated icosahedron. I had to google/wiki around to learn what that is. Want to know what it is? Try this; go ahead, I'll wait.

Got it? Good. Pretty interesting, wouldn't you say? I thought so.

Here's one made with Hourglass units. Looks complicated? Not really, once I got the concept, it's rather simple and elegant, almost zen.

So my hand cut rings leave lots room for improvement, the AR's were all over the place, copper and brass wires have lots spring back, and the last roll of aluminum wire was so weak that it kinked like every other inch.

But I had loads of fun! Believe me when I say practice makes perfect; this little boy has over 500 rings! (something like 540 in total, according to the math, but don't hold me to it....)

Now I'm obsessed. I'm making a chainmaille soccer ball, in black and white rings, yay!!!

Hourglass Tetrahedron

I did it! I did it! Took me a long, long time, but I finally made it! My first Hourglass Tetrahedron!

Can't say I remember all the steps, but it's here! Many thanks to FalloftheNoldor's video clip on YouTube; I must have replayed the clip a zillion times before completing this cutie.

UPDATE for ring stats:
All one size rings, 16 gauge swg, bright aluminum, WD 1.4 mm, ID 9.5 mm, AR ~6.8;
or simply: Size T16 BA from Blue Buddha.

Now it's time for dissecting it, really understanding how it's put together. I would LOVE to make a garden ornament out of copper tubing, yeah!!

So cute! Can't wait to show them off:-)

Shaggy Loops Earrings

Fun earrings made with left over rings from practice kits. All rings are in 18 gauge, big and small; the beads at the very bottom are sterling silver.

Now only if I had a earring display stand .... hum, maybe a custom stand like this one, wouldn't that be nifty?! Here's the how-to on the stand; must give it a try.