Audio Transcript
Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi, this is Julie with Beadaholique.com and Today I want to show you a faux chain maille technique as illustrated in this bracelet that we did for Swarovski event at the tucson gem and mineral show. You can see it has a really nice thick chunky look that looks like chain maille but in fact it's not. I'm going to show you how to do it. You're going to need a length of chain. For the bracelet we used three feet of chain and we cut it so it's about six-and-a-half inches long each length of chain. For the demos here I'm going to use a smaller amount so I can show you how to do it but you will need a chain which consists of open links here's a lighter weight chain so you see that it doesn't always have to be a chunky style chain it can be a lighter weight but the important characteristics of whatever chain that you use is round links. They don't have to be double. They do need to be round and they need to be open links. I show you right here what I mean by open links It means that essentially your chain consists of jump rings You can see I can open it just like a jump ring and each link is opened there as opposed to being closed links which are completely soldered together. I could remove that link. I'm going to use that as a jump ring in this project I'm going to remove the next one really quick For the bracelet you would measure your length and this was about six-and-a-half inches long and it's three segments of chain each. For the video I'm going to do three segments nine links long each so I can put away my ruler It's important you always have a odd number of links and that's so that your bracelet will lay flat You'll notice here we've got a flat one a turned up one, a flat one, a turned up one and then when you get all the way to the end of you end in a flat one as well. You'll be able to achieve that by counting an odd number of links So I'm going to do nine. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 On the tenth one you're not gonna cut it especially if you're using heavy chain like this you don't want to every use your flush cutters on it. It will destroy them. So I've got two pairs of chain nose pliers. If this was a lighter chain I could use a lighter weight pliers but here I have Wubbers and they're very heavy duty and very strong. They're going to allow me to open up this link I'm opening it just like a jump ring and I'm taking it off placing it down Since this is double link chain I want to up in the next one as well the same way and remove it I'm going to want three chain segments equal length I'm going to count another nine 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 on the 10th and open the ring up Do this until you have three equal segments Now that I've got my three segments and you can actually make this as wide as You could do 4, 5 or even 6 Dependents on your project I just want to show you the technique here So I've got my jump rings which were just the open links which I took off my chain I'm going to grab one I'm going to use it just like a jump ring, so on the end pair of double links on one length of chain I'm gonna put that onto the jump ring and also the end double links on a second length of chain put onto the jump ring and now I'm going to just close it up Now you have a choice if you want to add a second one so each link is doubled or just a single one. I actually want to go with just a single right now So pick up another one. I'm going to skip over the next set of links and connect the next pair of double links if you're counting this was the first I skipped over the second now I'm doing the third I'm going to do all the odd number. So every other one Close these like jump rings as you go skipping over the next one if it helps you can look at it as the ones that lay flat are the ones you connect. The ones that are upright are the ones you don't connect It can be a little hard to see that visually as you're doing this If you're doing this project at home I do want to know it will take some strength to open and close these very heavy gauge links of the chain. If you're using a lighter weight chain it's not going to be a problem at all but it does take a little strength and getting used to Do not use a pair of inexpensive pliers. I cannot stress this enough. It just will not work and it's going to really hard on your hands So just make sure you do have a good pair of pliers if you are you going to be using a heavier gauge chain and takes a couple times to get used to it The first couple times I tried opening closing was very difficult but then I just got the hang of it and it flowed from there Those are a couple things to bear in mind as you are doing this project So I've gotten down to my end links on both segment of chain and I'm just gonna go ahead and connect them like I've been doing all the other ones So I'm using one of my open links as a jump ring placing all the links from the double link of chains onto there and closing it like jump ring. So now I've got one segment which is done and now I need to connect the third segment the same way and I actually used five jump rings which were the links of chain bet you notice I only have three from where I separated the chain so I need more and I'm just gonna go back to my cut length of chain and open up some more links So I need two more Open them up and now I have five and I'm going to connect them the exact same way The end two links from your cut length of chain and I say cut length I just mean separated because we are not cutting this chain with cutters Go onto this side. You see we've already got the one here that gives you a guide as to where you need to place this link We're going to close it up and we're just gonna go along the edge here again doing every other one and you can see this one already had a link in it so that's a good q again that that is going to be the one you're going to connect to Last ring to connect the segment it's going to connect it the same as the others through those double links and then through the double links on the piece of chain next to it close it up and you have your faux chain maille One quick thing I want to show you before we sign off on this video I wanna show you how you would go about attaching a clasp to a project such as this We've got a tube clasp here instead of using the heavier links I just used some ten millimeter black finish jump rings which are smaller and I just made it work. So whatever type of clasp you have just line it up with the side and apply jump rings where need be. So that is how you create a faux chain maille look and you can do this with bracelets necklaces or anything you like and make it as long as you like and as wide as you like. Just remember to always have an odd number of chain links when you're doing this and make sure that your chain consist of round links so it looks like chain maille jump rings and just make sure that they are open links and not close links. Go to Beadaholique.com for all of your beading supply needs!
