My oldest son bought a really cool bracelet at GratefulFest 3 years ago from a guy who made 'chain mail jewelry'. He has outgrown it and wants to make his own. Anyone have any familiarity with this art form? I can't seem to find anything about it, like techniques or equipment. Any advice?
Youll need a steel rod, the diameter of which being equal to the ringlets you want to make the mail from, A bunch of steel wire, Wire cutters, 2 pair needle nose pliers, A Dremel rotary tool with stone points and the heavy duty fiberglass reenforced cutoff wheels, (All this usually comes in the kit) A welding torch and rods (You can usually find a small portable torch kit for $100 to 200 on Craigslist) ******************************************************************** Wrap the wire tightly around the rod, Using the cutoff wheel, cut along the spool of wire you made while its still on the rod. Learn to weld the ends of the wire ringlets together then start linking them together as you weld them. For all the effort and expense, make sure he wants to go into business making these.
Why not do wire wrapping instead? So many techniques to learn. Some wire wrapping dvds at http://www.createapendant.com
Look on ArtFire.com. Search: "Chain Mail" There are some killer chain mail artists on there. Honestly the simplest way I've seen it done is with jump rings for jewelry. Ya know like the little circles that are on dangle earrings.
Just take some wire (galvanized 16g works well for beginners) and spin it around a metal rod (3/8 inch is a good starting diameter). Drill a hole in one end of the rod and slide the start of wire spool in before you spin. Slide the wrapped wire off the rod and take yer sheers, not wire snips, and cut down the bent wire. Don't worry about welding, unless the jewelery is used in trapeze stunts the 16g wire won't come undone. http://www.mailleartisans.org/ The definitive mailler's resource. Plenty of tutorials, both for beginners and the advanced. There's also a forum! Making chainmail is fun and not as hard as one would think. Be ready to have just about everybody ask you where you got your pieces, and upon answering, if you can make them one
