Grandmother's Bracelet For A Friend

Last week was a friend's birthday. Her third grandchild was due any day and she was so excited. I thought, what could be a better gift than a grandmother's bracelet. I made a shiny aluminum chainmaille bracelet of byzantine segments. The segments are divided by Swarovski crystals, each one representing the birthstone of a grandchild.

I just gave her this special gift and she loved it. It made me so happy to see how thrilled she was to receive it. As an added bonus, it is also a mother's bracelet. Her birthday and the birthdays of her 2 daughters are in the same months as her grandchildren. So this is a double duty bracelet.

Trying Out Aluminum

One of my biggest loves is making chainmaille. I had been coiling, sawing and tumbling my own rings. It takes time, but I loved being able to do whatever weave I wanted without having to order rings and wait for them to ship. (Different weaves require different ring sizes.)

Fast forward to today. I am back to work full time, my youngest son is involved in sports year round and I have a very old home that I am trying to maintain. The thing that fell by the wayside, besides cleaning, was chainmaille making. And I really miss it! So, I decided to try purchasing my rings. With the price of silver sky high, I tried to give aluminum a try.

My precut rings just arrived and they are beautiful!!! Keep an eye on my Zibbet shop shop to see what they become.

A Chainmaille Treasury

I woke this morning to find that I had been included in a chainmaille treasury. (Available for viewing until Monday, March 16, morning)

I love chainmaille treasuries, not only because I make and sell chainmaille, but also because it lets people know that chainmaille is not just about knights and armor.


Thanks to Avionmaille for including me in this beautiful collection.

I'm In 2 Treasuries This Week

This week I was in 2 treasuries that were created by members of a new Etsy team called Chainmaillers Guild.

To find out more about this great team of chainmaillers please visit our blog.

Byzantine - My Favorite Weave

Byzantine is a very well know chainmaille weave. In fact, it is the first one that a lot of mailers learn to make. I know it was my first. Byzantine quickly became a favorite of mine because of its versatility. It lends itself well to earrings, bracelets and necklaces as well.

Below you can see some examples of how different Byzantine can look.

These earrings are made from the Byzantine weave with Jasper beads dangling from the bottom.











This bracelet is a weave known as Beez to Butterflies. It is made from linking vertical sections of Byzantine together.











This shows another way to link Byzantine together. Full Byzantine segments are connected by rings in the middle.

Here is an example of Byzantine segments that are connected with larger rings instead of being connected directly to each other.











This version of Byzantine is known as Romanov. Segments of Byzantine are used to surround a bead or gemstone and are then connected with larger rings.










And lastly, this necklace shows Byzantine in its purest form. Byzantine segments are connected to make a long Byzantine necklace










If you are interested in chainmaille make sure you learn Byzantine. From there it is easy to let your imagination take over.

A Byzantine Variation

Byzantine is one of the most well known chainmaille weaves. It is the first one that a lot of people learn when they decide to give chainmaille a try. Byzantine is used for necklaces, bracelets, earrings and even key fobs. It is also easy to make variations of byzantine. You can do as I have done and add small byzantine sections to the main weave. You can also weave 2 seperate lengths and then join them together with smaller sections. Byzantine is one of those weaves that you can take wherever your imagination leads you.