Finished stuff- September doings

I've finished a few things recently that I want to show off, but since I bought them as kits I can only provide links, not instructions.  Still, it's nice to have a wrap up of the end of the month craft doings.  Sorry for those for those looking for projects.  But they are really awesome kits so if you do like them, feel free to go and by one.

First of all is this lovely bracelet I bought, a Chainmaille crystal weave bracelet.  Little fiddly to get the hang of the maille technique but once you do the results are great.  I think the bracelet looks a little bit like a honey bee- I'm tempted to get some small black links and try modifying the pattern to make a honey bee bracelet.  If I do, I'll post some instructions.

Next is a part of a birthday present for my niece who will be turning 3 next week.  It was going to be something she could play with a bit but it turned out to be just too impractical for that.  The small pots and such are too unbalanced so had to be glued down.  But it's pretty and I know her Mum already made a few for the wall of her room because we bought the kits at the same time for... wait for it... $5 each!  Bargain or what!  No online link for it, but if you are in Melbourne then Theo's Discount Craft in Boronia (outer eastern suburbs) is well worth a visit.  They have lots of import stuff, mainly jewellery findings and sewing stuff but also a random mix of other stuff too.

Next, I didn't make these but my Mum is an awesome card maker and my go-to stop for card supplies.  I need a few thank-you cards I need to give in a few weeks to my awesome teaching placement mentor teachers (I have to go back to finish my time at the end of the month).  She made these this week and they were so pretty and suitable I nicked them on the spot:

And now to wrap this post up, here's my procrastinating owls in progress.  I've done the body and one sleeve up to the armpits so I'm just about to cast on for the second sleeve.  And in terms of assignments I now only have one large evil one left (total blank so I guess I'll start it next week) and a few smaller pieces that I'll get around to eventually :P

Origami bag charm using stamps

Today was spent sorting out my bead stuff from three overflowing boxes, complete with a couple of exploding containers (and I just vacuumed yesterday... *sigh*).   But now I have things more or less sorted- at least as long as I don't buy any more stuff.

To celebrate I have a new project- a bag charm that uses origami Discworld stamps as decoration.  The stamps I've chosen to use are from the town Bonk and feature bats on the original stamps.  I thought it might be fun to make little bat origami figures with them.  When I trawled the internet I found a number of different bat versions out there so I tried each of them.  I also made a little flapping bird just because I could.

If you wish to turn these into bag or jewelery charms we need to stiffen them up a bit.  But first, let's put a hole in the paper so there is some way of adding them to a jump ring later.  A safety pin does this well.

To stiffen up the origami, you need a sealer of some sort.  Varnish would work, but I like using Mod Podge.  It comes in several different finishes, matte, gloss and satin, which is what I used in this project.  Several coats will probably be necessary and a toothpick through the hole can be a useful stand to hold things while drying.

Once they are dry and firm, pop a small jump ring through the hole you made (you may find it necessary to redo the hole with your safety pin).

At this point you can do all sorts of things!  For the bag charm, I first made a 5 cm full persian chain.  To one end I attached a large lobster clasp so I can easily attach it to my bag zip later.

Then I add three different lengths of chain to the origami and join these to the chain I made.  And that's that!

Origami stamps are great for jewelery and for light use tasks such as this, although I would not try and use it for something like a key chain.  I suspect they would be too battered in a pocket with a bunch of keys to survive long.  We'll see how well they survive on my handbag!

Chain maille chains

Whew, it's amazing how time flies when you are concentrating on something.  I started playing with rings this morning around ten and I was shocked to realise that I had managed to work through to three.  No wonder my back is currently grumbling at me!

But I've had fun.  I've made chain samplers of a few different sorts of chains- two from the 'Basics of Chain Maille' book and two from a really useful website, http://cgmaille.com/tutorials.shtml.  Oh, and one from me not getting the hang of a Full Persian chain for a rather long time.  Below also demonstrates how much you can expect to produce from three packets of $2 shop jump rings.  I had bought three packs- two of the smaller size with 80 rings/pack (one black, one gold) and one of the larger size and 60/pack in gold.  The rings below (plus the motif I made in the previous post) used up all but 5 gold rings.  While you could make a bracelet or a necklace from these rings, it would not be very economical.  The wire is rather soft however, which does make it a bit easier to practice with since you don't need as much force to open and close the rings.

The short chain lengths also give me a cunning plan to ponder as a way of fixing the zipper pull on my bag.  Hmm, time to plot...

Jump ring chain maille

A few weeks ago I ordered a couple of books (among other things) from http://www.beadsonline.com.au/ (no I don't work for them, get paid by them or am even known by them with the exception as a one time customer!)  The books are a small booklets published by Artistic Wire and called 'The Basics of Chain Maille' and 'Advanced Chain Maille'.  You'll never guess what they are about...

I like beading and wire stuff but I've only dabbled a bit (I made one byzantine chain once including making the rings but that's it).  Since the first book could be bought with a bonus couple of packs of rings I thought 'Woo hoo, making rings was boring'.  And since I was buying anyway, why not get the advanced book too...  But when it came to making something I didn't want to waste the 'good' rings on, I dug out some cheap and cheerful $2 shop jump rings to practice with.

After careful consideration of the booklets (each describes how to do four different chain maille weaves) I decided to jump straight to the advanced book.  Foolish?  Possibly, but I like a challenge.  So here is my first attempt- a Japanese 12-in-2 'flower'.  It's a bit loose.  Turns out when they talk about the gauge for rings, it really does matter for some weaves, particularly when dealing with two different sized rings.  While the book suggested two rings, one with an internal diameter of 4.3mm and the other 2.8, my rings were closer to 6 and 4.  You can see in the hanging up version how it doesn't hold it's shape well as a result.  But I might see if my cardmaking Mum is interested in using it for a card decoration.

One other little tip- my super cheap and easy holder for maille.  There were a few times when I was working that I really wished I had another hand for a second to hold the work in progress while I opened a ring or tried to work out what I was up to.  So I made a holder- take an eraser and a T-pin (you can find them with the pins in the sewing section of your favourite craft/fabric shop).  Stick T-pin in eraser and you have your holder- the T-junction of the T-pin is really useful to hang stuff off.  Now I'm off to try a few other things from the book.  Or maybe the net.  Or perhaps I need to go buy some more rings...