Finished fine silver charms and chain maille

Finished fine silver charms

The last post talked about the fine silver charms I was making from moulds of buttons and I said I'd post a photo of the finished, polished charms, so here they are after they've been tumbled:

Finished charms

I'm rather pleased with the way the charms turned out, although if you look closely enough, you'll probably spot the finger prints!

Weekends and chain maille

The last couple of weekends I've found time and inclination to saw jump rings and make chain maille.

Last weekend I used 0.8 mm sterling silver wire to make 144 jump ringswith an inner diameter of 4 mm - I wanted to try the Half Persian 3 in 1 chain maille weave. It took me a couple of hours to make the jump rings, but that's what films on DVD are for.

Once I'd made the jump rings I turned my hand to the weave and made a bracelet that ended up 7.5" or 19 cm long and used up 90 of the jump rings I'd made. I finished the bracelet with one of my s-clasps and 2 larger rings made from 1.5 mm wire with an inner diameter of 4.5 mm. The larger rings were attached to the bracelet using 4 jump rings made from 0.8 mm wire but this time with a 3 mm inner diameter.

So, here is the finished piece:

Sterling silver half persian 3 in 1 bracelet

Today I made some more 0.8 mm jump rings with a 4 mm inner diameter - then I used the ones I made last week with the new batch and made a Full Persian weave bracelet.

This bracelet is 7.25" or 18 cm long and contains 176 of the 4 mm jump rings I made last week and today. It is slightly shorter than the length I prefer for a bracelet but since I've used up all my 0.8 mm sterling silver wire it will have to do. It does fasten around my wrist but there is not a lot of space so it doesn't drape well. I finished it off for now to see if it would fit my wrist and to see how it would look. So I used my usual s-clasp, 1.5 mm rings of 4.5 mm inner diameter and a couple of the smaller 3 mm 0.8 mm rings to hold the larger loops to the weave and allow the s-clasp and larger rings to lie on the same alignment (it makes it easier to close and lies more comfortably against the skin). So here's a photo:

Full Persian bracelet

Until I buy more sterling silver 0.8 mm wire (and 1 mm wire as I've finished that too) I can't make any more sterling silver chain maille items. So maybe I'll concentrate on something else.

More likely, I'll buy more wire when pay day arrives.

Until another time
Anne