It took me awhile, but I finally caught that elusive orb, the marble. I have captured it inside of a chainmaille globe, so that its fiery spirit can be forever seen-- but never again shall this marble roll under the depths of the couch, where it was discovered!

I wanted to post instructions for the making of this marbled cage or caged marble, but for me it was simply attempting to get the chain of rings to loop around the marble. It seems straighforward, BUT! marbles love to escape and fly underneath beds.

Here is a picture of how I began (note that I used another blue ring after this).


The marble makes a great necklace:

Or keychain, when I am wearing my Celtic Flower pendant:

I got one of those cross necklaces from VBS last year-- the gray cross with metal caps that promptly broke. It seemed a pity to throw the cross away, but I had no way of attaching it to a string!

That is, until I figured out I could wrap wire around it. Now I have a fun and pretty cross to wear.

To begin with, I am trying to add an RSS feed, which will automatically alert you if there is an update on the blog. Please look at this helpful blogpost, which explains RSS: HERE. Also, a more consise explanation HERE.
Edit: I have added this feature, which can be found on the right-hand side of my blog. You can either subscribe via reader or by recieving email updates-- spam-free, of course.

As you can tell, I have finally posted pictures of my latest creations. That is ALOT of pictures and posts. Please enjoy them! I spent three hours simply editing the pictures, uploading them, and writing posts.

I've also updated many of my previous posts with even more pictures.

Lucy Pevensie (added a work in progress)

Gandalf (added a work in progress)

Washer Necklaces (added picture of the bottlecap necklace, whose ribbons I used)

Frodo and Sam (more work in progress pictures)

Chainmaille Celtic Flower Necklace/Keychain/Charm (added pictures of the keychain)

Chainmaille Mobiuses (added two new creations!)

Chainmaille Bracelet and Attempts (fixed the broken pictures of the bracelet).

Charm Bracelets (added a green bracelet)

This is actually supposed to be a pendant, not an earring. Actually, I wanted to make two of these as earrings, but I did not have enough jump rings. So now it is a necklace pendant. A really small one. It's just a little bigger than my fingernail!

I made this for a friend, who is going to be doing a small acting part in a homemade Star Wars movie for another friend before she leaves to join the convent!

It is half a Byzantine weave with a little dangle bead on the bottom.

Maille Artisians International Leauge This website has a huge number of weaves, including descriptions of traditional historical weaves and the newer, decorative weaves. While some of their tutorials are confusing, this is the place to go with all chainmaille questions. Look here for inspiration, too.

CG Maille Computer generated images that clearly explain the weaves. Best tutorials I have found.

UnkamenGifts' Flickr Wonderful tutorials, although sometimes a step or two is left out.

Etsy The online site for everything handmade. Type "chainmaille", "chainmaille jewelry" or any number of chainmail related words into the search bar. You can purchase other artisian's work, or simply look for inspiration. You can also purhase quality handmade jumpring supplies here.

I'm sure there are other good sites out there-- these are just the ones that I find the most helpful. Chainmaille is a relatively small niche in the jewelry community, so instructions can be scarce. Of course, it is quite easy to find instructions on making chainmail armor-- but that takes FOREVER.

Chainmaille! Little random things like these earrings are the result of having a limited number of jumprings to work with-- and an even smaller number of similar color and size.

Orbitals are chainmaille rings that are not hooked into anything-- they are trapped inside of other rings to be held in place. (The Helm weave which I have used in my Geometric Flower and Chainmaille Bracelet uses orbitals).

While the firework dangles are not technically orbitals, they look like it. And the little red rings on the top certainly are.

What a boring name. "Pearl Bracelet".

I took some memory wire (the wire that stays in a bracelet shape even when stretched) and threaded on some glass pearls and little beads inbetween them.

A few days ago we had some families over. Of course, for much of the time I got stuck with the little girls instead of my friends my age (well, some of my friends my age hung out with me and the little girls). That's just the curse of being a hostess. I thought I'd give them some jewelry tips. I helped one girl make some clip on earrings.

The above picture is the creation of 9 year old S. I was occupied with the other girls for awhile, but she simply paid attention to what I was teaching them and made that tiara-- all by herself! I was very surprised when I turned around she said, "Shaylynn, look what I made!"

K., modeling the Crown of Stars. K. and I were both actors in Skits at VBS (aka, Catholic Camp). This year was the Glorious Mysteries, and we needed a crown of twelve stars (Revelation... I forget the verse) for Mary's coronation.