Japanese chain maille bracelet & ring... creative procrastination at its finest

It's hot hot hot. I have typing out the yin yang still to do and I am blind with eyestrain. Off to the eye doc tomorrow morning, and that little problem should be resolved with new lenses in, oh, three weeks or so.

Good news: today I shipped my very first sale of turquoise beads off my long-neglected website. Thank you, Kaye! I have to start taking more pictures and posting new items. The prices are old -- I bought this turquoise three and four years ago -- and I checked a few places online. Wow, has it gone up. I did order myself some Fox Mine turquoise -- really looking forward to seeing that -- along with a pile of other cool stuff including some black tourmaline beads for a commission. That will be combined with some raw black tourmaline. My customer for this says black tourmaline conveys some serious power. Stay tuned for pix.

Japanese chain maille ring and bracelet. Would this be called 3 in 3? I forget. I'm sure someone will correct me. I had bought these copper rings mainly because they are so purty and shiny, and I was procrastinating, stacking them up and watching them flippety flop over, rather than sitting tight and square like more usual chain maille designs and thought they'd make a nice Japanese style chain maille ring, comfortable to wear due to generalised floppiness.

I have a customer in mind for this, hence the 9.75 size: note the tiny jump rings I used in the top photo (at about 7:45) to reduce the size to pretty much exactly 9.75 on the ring mandrel.

Then I thought a necklace or choker would be a cool idea, and a mindless (I'm so easily entertained) hour or so later... I realised I was going to run out of rings long before I got to 20 or 22 inches, so I stopped at an 8-inch bracelet. I'd forgotten how silky soft metals can be.

I'm working on a new "leaf" style of hammered clasp, plus it's a little more guyish than the usual curvy, twirly designs I do, and I'm hoping that the centre bit will prevent the jump ring from working its way loose all the time like it tends to do in the standard curvy style of hammered clasp. This still isn't quite what I picture in my mind -- I'd prefer sharper bends rather than soft curves -- but I'm working on that.

Thanks for looking!

Choker to bracelet

Playing with beads again... gack. Made a choker and pulled on it to tighten a knot and the whole thing went flying all over the room. Remade it, tried it on, took photos. Ick. Don't like all the knots and frayed bits of cord. Remade it again as a bracelet, and I think it works a little bit better.


Dzi-style carnelian bead, facetted Hubei turquoise, copper beads& spacers,
base metal beads, waxed cotton cord.



Dzi-style carnelian bead, facetted Hubei turquoise, copper beads & spacers,
base metal beads, hammered copper clasp

 Now, this is interesting. I checked to make sure that I'd spelled dzi correctly and found a page of what each dzi bead means. Check them all out at one of my neighbours, so to speak:

http://mydzi.blogspot.com/2008/02/dzi-bead-meanings.html

หินทิเบต(ดี ซี ไอ) TIBET DZI BEADS -9 eye : Builds up a lenient and caring heart for you, helps you gain fame and benefits. Increases the owner’s wealth. 9 Eye is one of the most sought after, believed to represent the 9 planetary systems and its essence. This Dzi is touted as a window to wisdom. The 9-Eyed Dzi bead endows the wearer to expand his intelligence and wisdom. This type of Dzi bead is also well documented in modern Asian circles for its "mysticism" and "power" by several people who wore them and survived near death experiences. This bead is often considered the unofficial wealth bead. The 9 eye Dzi bead may assist the owner of this bead to become rolling in wealth. The wealth will be gained through one’s own work. This bead attracts attention and assists in causing fame to increase. The nine eyed Dzi assists the entrepreneur in finding their ideas and strengths.

The nine eyed Dzi bead assists its owner to Gather Wealth, Achieve Good Health, Success, Gain Power, Compassion, Glory, and Expelling Evil & Acts as a Protector. It is believed that the 9 eye Dzi bead is able assist its owner in achieving the Nine-fold Merits. The Nine-fold merits are compassion, glory, everlasting brightness, fame, dignity, authority, control, reputation and the removal of obstacles. Accumulation of meritorious virtue, increases compassionate, separates from suffering and gains advantage. Gathering the Nine-fold Merits, ensuring the growth in compassion, power and glory thus bringing about immense benefits.

I need to work on refining the cording I use. I priced a dark brown leather cord at Bamiyan the other week -- I think I will get a roll of that to play with. 1.5mm seems to be a good weight, as well, which of course I don't have in the waxed cotton.

Back to the drawing board. But not tonight. It's 9:40 and I have to pack up the last bin for the market and get to sleep. 4:30 comes awfully early.