I am so excited to share with you this beautiful chain maille bracelet by Irina from Irina’s Cute Box. Chain maille goes back to medieval times as a metal weaving technique they used to make armour worn by knights. Now it is a common jewelry technique. I have always wanted to try chain maille, but have been intimidated by its complex appearance. This is Irina’s first attempt, which encourages me to try out the technique. Her piece came out beautifully, and I would never have guessed she was a novice. See how to make your own chain maille jewelry, incorporating pearls! Take it away Irina…
I’d like to share how I made this chain maille bracelet with pearls.
I made jump rings of sterling silver filled wire (18 ga, half hard). The rings have to be a little bit bigger than beads.
To make first bracelet link, connected 4 rings as it shown on the picture.
Then keeping them in fingers fingers as shown on the image below, I “opened” the rings forming them in a shape of nest. Places a pearl bead inside the nest.
Then, closed upper rings like it shown on the picture…
… and connected them with two more jump rings. This rings are starting next chain maille bracelet link.
Again… opened rings to make a nest, placed a bead inside.
Closed the rings and connected with more jump rings.
And so on until the bracelet is needed length. In the end, I attached a clasp, and the bracelet is ready to wear 🙂
