Viper Basket chainmaille weave

labup wrote

on May 2, 2011 3:11 PM

Thse are made with a new chainmaille weave I learned a couple weeks ago.  The first one is a copper bracelet.  The second one is silver earrings.

MorningSky wrote

on May 2, 2011 4:01 PM

Very nice. I love both of them.  That is on weave that I haven't tried yet.

13tamara wrote

on May 3, 2011 1:50 PM

wow....Laurel....these are nice.....love the copper one....

SEllen 2 wrote

on May 3, 2011 3:25 PM

I like these.

 I like the copper toggle end that's showing too.

I'm gonna have to start a list just for all the chainmaille weaves I want to try. Exactly what I need...another list.

Thanks for sharing.

Cat_P wrote

on May 5, 2011 7:08 AM

Oh I really like this!

AddictedToBeads wrote

on May 5, 2011 6:50 PM

Very Nice!

My favorite is the bracelet.

Wonderful work!

Angela

kareng915 wrote

on May 6, 2011 12:53 AM

Great pieces!!  this is what makes me want to learn chain mail  :)

tpfrank wrote

on May 6, 2011 6:30 AM

I really like your cooper bracelet and silver earrings,pretty, pretty, pretty.

 I need to take the chainmaille adventure and see where it leads me. I'm sure it will lead to sore fingers and frustration, but that is what us creative people deal with to make a thing of beauty. 

kasi1983 wrote

on May 6, 2011 7:16 AM

Both very beautiful! May I ask what ring sizes you have used? I have heard this weave is very AR sensitive...

But don't you just love this weave? I do, too, it's easy but has an fantastic look. And it can be done with relatively low number of rings.

Kerstin

JSmaz wrote

on May 7, 2011 5:51 PM

That's a cool weave.  Nice work Lori.

labup wrote

on May 7, 2011 7:11 PM

Thanks all.  This is actually a very easy weave.  Kerstin, the ring sizes I used were both 18 gauge, 19/64" and 3/16".  It is AR sensitive.  I tried it with several other gauges and ID's but most of them wouldn't work.  I learned it from Curt and C & T Designs.  He is a very cool guy and has really great rings.  They are the folks that make the square wire rings I use a lot.  They have an new square wire ring size that you can use for this weave too.  I can't remember what it is though.  Anyone interested in great chain maille rings should check them out. 

Nicole:  You might have had trouble with chain maille because of the rings you had.  I have had all kinds of quality of rings and that can make a big difference.  Also, you really need good pliers for chain maille.  That makes a big difference too.

ChainOfBeauty wrote

on May 19, 2012 12:28 PM

Another great weave! I've seen some variations of this weave, but I have made bracelets with the same design you used.  With the aspect ratios I used, my bracelet looked more like the earrings than your bracelet.

Finding a good (or, at least, workable) aspect ratio isn't too hard. First, make the 2-2-2 chain at whatever aspect ratio you want, but no smaller than 3. Then, for the larger rings, make sure the inner diameter will fit completely around a smaller ring and through another set of smaller rings.

For example, if the smaller rings are 20 gauge wire (0.81 mm) with an inner diameter of 3 mm, then you can find a good inner diameter for the larger rings by first finding the outer diameter of the smaller rings. like this:

3 mm (inner) + 0.81 mm (one side of ring) + 0.81 mm (other side of ring) = 4.6 mm outer diameter for the smaller rings.

Then, because the larger rings also go through the next set of rings, you need to increase the inner diameter of the larger rings by the wire diameter of the smaller rings...

4.6 mm (outer diameter for smaller rings) + 0.81 (wire diameter of next rings) =  about 5.4 mm.

This will be slightly too tight to work if you double the inner rings, as you did here. Add at least another 0.2 - 0.3 mm...

5.4 mm + 0.3 =  5.75 mm

This formula will give you the absolute minimum inner diamer for the large rings. The resulting piece of jewelry may be quite stiff. I recommend increasing the inner diameter of the larger rings just slightly so the final piece of jewelry has some flexibility. (If I remember correctly, when I did this using 20 gauge wire, I used inner diameters of 3 mm and 6 mm.)

ChainOfBeauty wrote

on Jan 19, 2013 1:01 PM

Just an update on my previous comment.

Last week, I made another variation of the Viper Basket. I used 20 gauge (AWG, 0.81 mm) wire to make 4.5mm and 7mm inner diameter rings. The resulting chain had a very nice aspect ratio, so the piece was neither too loose nor too tight.

Also, with this smaller gauge wire, I could make a chain of 3+3 (three rings, not two) down the center. You can see the result here: http://chainofbeauty.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/silver-and-green-viper-basket/.

For the 3+3+3 chain, I used 2 forest green rings and 1 silver rings, like this: green-silver-green. I think the result was very nice.

Otherwise, I make the Viper Basket with 18 gauge (AWG, 1.02 mm) wire, same inner diameter.