Category Archives: chainmaille

~ Instagram August – December 2012 – Part 1

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Wow, has it really been that long since I collaged and posted my Instagram photos?  There are so many photos that I need to break them out in several parts and by loose themes.  So here is the first batch from the August-October timeframe.

{Food and Drink}

End_of_year 2012A

End_of_year 2012B

End_of_year 2012c

End_of_year 2012D

{Papercrafts and Chainmaille Jewelry}

End_of_year 2012E

End_of_year 2012F

{Just around the house, out and about locally or on travel photos}

End_of_year 2012G

End_of_year 2012H

End_of_year 2012I

 

~ Latest Jewelry Projects

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I haven’t been keeping up with blog-posting my chainmaille or beaded jewelry!  Here are a few of my more recent projects.  The bracelet above has amethyst and glass rondelles with aluminum rings in byzantine.  The chainmaille bracelet below is elfweave, the first I’ve tried from a kit from Blue Buddha Boutique.

The necklaces above are part of a going-away package I’m making for my co-workers (amethyst, blue aventurine, agate, glass rondelles).  Yep, I’m the one who is going away to a new job but they’ll get the goodies. =)  They were modeled after my original “Purple Thursday” necklace below (agate and glass).  My branch has a routine or dressing in purple on Thursdays.  It is just something quirky that we do!

 

 

I had just finished the necklace above (lapis lazuli, blue candy jade, turquoise, moonstone, blue quartz) and 15 mins later it was sold to a high school friend of my brother’s on Facebook.  There was also a matching bracelet.  The necklace below is something I made on a whim using a lot of different beads – amethyst, jade, tourmaline, garnet, fresh water pearls, red tiger’s eye.  The rings on the project below are brass.

 

~ Latest Chainmaille Projects

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Just finished making these little babies this morning.  Pretty quick projects considering I started making them late last night.  Each has wire-wrapped beads of spider agate, jade, aventurine, jasper and hematite.  The necklace has two main sizes of jump rings while the bracelet is generally one size with exception of the connector rings for the toggle.  Click on each of the photos for a closer look.  For more inspiration, go to the Blue Buddha Boutique website.

~ New Chainmaille Bracelets

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It has been a while since I last worked on a chainmaille project.  The pink bracelet is for a friend who recently underwent surgery on her wrist.  Hopefully this little bit of bling will make a happy gift. =)  It is two byzantine chains connected together at the larger connector rings and at the ends.

I broke out my copy of Chained by Rebeca Mojica for a little coiled inspiration.  The purple coiled and byzantine combo is for me.  We have “purple day” every Thursday at work and it was high time I made a bracelet with purple  rings.

~ Happy 2012!

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Happy first day of 2012, all!  Hope you have great creative projects in store for this year.

I finally got around to uploading some of my photos of handmade Christmas presents.  The projects above are chainmaille bracelets with personalized charms for my sisters-in-law and mom.  The weave is byzantine with rings I ordered from Blue Buddha Boutique.  The charms are scrapbooking charms from 7Gypsies which are now very hard to find.  I printed photos to fit on the double-sided charms and sealed with Golden self-leveling medium.

Come back this week for a visit in the next few weeks.  I should have some new photos and other projects to share soon.

~ Team Emmett Bracelet

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Here is my most current Twilight-themed project for a recent contest I ran on the Twilight Sorority Facebook page.  This is a combination of Byzantine chainmaille with scales, beaded embellishments and a double-sided Team Emmett charm.  It is a more elaborate Twilight-themed bracelet than the ones I’ve made in the last few months.  Congratulations to my Twi-sis, Christina, who was randomly chosen as the winner!

 

~ Oopsy! Turned a boo-boo into something good!

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Here is my latest chainmaille –  a 6-in-1 with scales and beaded embellishments.  The reason I call it a “boo-boo” is because a co-worker ordered an 8-in-1.  I mindlessly went along with the 6-in-1 weave and when I finished it realized I made the wrong one!  D’oh!  So, instead of wasting it I added scales and beads and matched the colors to a new dress I just purchased. =)

Was very productive this past Veterans Day weekend.  In addition to the bracelet shown to the left, I completed two Turkish Roundmaille bracelets and two 8-in-1 bracelets.

 

~ Happy Columbus Day, Dragonscale and a Twilight Bracelet Giveaway!

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One of the perks of being a Federal employee is the holidays.  Oh, how I love a day off!  For those of you out there enjoying a Monday off, have fun because the work week starts all over again tomorrow! =)

I worked on a few projects this week, one of which I can’t show until the Fiskateers site puts it up but it will be up soon enough!  The one I can share is a chainmaille project – dragonscale cuff in aluminum with anodized aluminum inner rings in irridescent gunmetal and blue.  I’ll have a few autumn/Halloween/Twilight projects to come in the coming weeks, so come back a visit a little later.

P.S.  For those of you who want to get in on the Twilight Sorority custom bracelet giveaway — Just go to any of the Twilight posts on this blog and leave a comment.  Comment to your heart’s content but only one entry per person.  The contest will close on Thursday and I will announce the winner on Friday.  The prize is a custom Twilight charm bracelet with your choice of “team”.  Good luck and thanks!

~ Two New Beaded Olivia Chainmaille Bracelets

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Sorry, such a short post.  Just wanted to get these pictures out there to share.  Latest chainmaille projects.  {below} Aluminum project for a high school friend’s custom order and {above} brown anodized aluminum and brass for me, a fall-inspired, Renaissance Festival kind of piece. =)

If you are interested in a similar bracelet to the one below, let me know at leasanders@yahoo.com.  Thanks!

~ Another Year Older and Chainmaille Class

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Happy birthday, Jacob!  Where did all the time go?  My youngest is not a baby anymore having celebrated his 13th birthday.  Here are a couple of photos with his cake.

Miranda and I went to learn the chainmaille weave Olivia Lace at Off the Beading Path in Occoquan with Ann Goodwin yesterday.  Once I got the basic gist of the weave, I was off and running!  Bracelet shown below is my finished project.  It has been almost a year since I started chainmailling and I still find it a lot of fun.  So many weaves, so little time!

~ Happy Holidays and Last Minute “CHAINED” Inspired Projects

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I’m going to be on a blog break for about two weeks (maybe, if I can hold out that long!) but before I go I wanted to share a few more projects that are inspired by Rebeca Mojica’s CHAINED book.  I didn’t think I would go for the coiled look but these turned out really nice!  I made both coiled and crystal projects just this morning.  The project in the middle is something I just made up on the fly by request from my daughter to use purple and green last night.

Happy Holidays, all, and best wishes for a healthy and successful New Year!  Please come back to visit me in January for a Bind-it-All blog hop!

~ Goofing off at the FYE Twilight Eclipse DVD Release Party

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My daughter and I (for some portion of time, my buddy Maureen) dutifully went to the FYE at Fair Oaks to attend the midnight DVD release party for Eclipse.  The crowd was a smaller this year.  Not sure if it was lack of advertising or if it was just too cold and too late to attend, but we were there in force.  I didn’t win big like I did last year on trivia – the questions were from the book and I only really know Twilight from the movies, but Miranda won a $10 FYE gift card.  Our location screened the movie while we waited for midnight but in the meanwhile, Miranda and I goofed off with the life-sized cardboard posters (with permission from the store, of course!) outside FYE. 

After midnight, we spent the next hour scouring the local McDonald’s locations for Happy Meal Hello Kitty watches!  We were successful and found all seven!  After just a few hours of sleep, we went to Target and picked up the collector’s edition of Eclipse, too.  Needless to say, we were tired mommy and daughter by the end of the day.  The Eclipse release has renewed my excitement for Twilight once again.  On the convention front, we’re already purchased our Gold Passes and look forward to the guest list and activities.  More to post on this later.

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On the chainmaille front, the projects below are my latest.  They were inspired from Rebecca Mojica’s new book “CHAINED“.  Absolutely great book filled with awesome projects.  Get your autographed copy from Blue Buddha Boutique.

~ What we did during the Thanksgiving weekend

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Just got back!  The family spent Thanksgiving with my hubby’s parents and sister in New Jersey.  To keep myself busy during the downtime, I brought along my stash of jump rings to make a few more projects.  The results are above – three bracelets and one watch.  I bought the watchface at a Cracker Barrell stop on the way to New Jersey.  Oh, first snow of the season–we ran into some wintry mix on Thanksgiving day and then again at St Mary’s.

{To see the projects close-up, click on the two photos below.}

On the way back from New Jersey, we stopped at Mount Saint Mary’s University and National Shrine Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes in Maryland.  This is our third visit to this location (snowflakes here, too!) and found some newer statuary and mosaics.  Nice to know that this site is always expanding.  By this time we had been in the car a few hours already and there was no way the kids would muster up smiles for the photos. {{{…sigh…}}}

~ Jewelry Gifts (Chainmaille, Twilight and Rintoo)

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Holiday gift-making is in full swing at the Sanders house.  Here are a few more jewelry pieces I made the last few weeks.  The chainmaille bracelets are for my brother and sis-in-law, the Rintoo necklace is for my oldest niece and the Twilight bracelets are a prize for a contest I hosted on the Twilight Sorority Facebook site.  Congratulations to Jenny for winning the contest! 

Chainmaille

{above – variations of Byzantine, below – 6-in-1 and dragonscale}

 

{Twilight – Eclipse Bracelets – silver and black chains}

{Eclipse posters – front}

{book covers – back}

 

Rintoo Necklace {both sides}

 

~ New Chainmaille Gifts

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I’ve been a busy bee the last few weeks making holiday presents for my nieces, nephew and brothers.  Haven’t started working on the sis-in-law bracelets but I’ll get to that in a bit.  Most of the rings are from Blue Buddha Boutique, clasps and small silver rings from the local Michael’s and Off the Beading Path in Occoquan, VA.  Come back and visit my blog in a few weeks.  I hope to have my calendar gifts that I plan to make for Brian’s cousins done and posted.

See the slideshow below for a closer look – (photo above from left to right) dragonscale, combo 2-in-2 with double spiral, box, double spiral, byzantine, shaggy loops, double helm chain, 6-in-1, 2-in-2, helm chain, shaggy loops, wiggle

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

11/12/10 Update –  Please see the Blue Buddha Ring Chart for translations of the rings sizes.

  • dragonscale – N18, H18
  • combo 2-in-2 with double spiral box – H18
  • double spiral – L18
  • byzantine – F18
  • shaggy loops – H18
  • double helm chain – L18, F18
  • 6-in-1 – P16
  • 2-in-2 – H18 
  • wiggle – H18

I use the following sites for tutorials –

~ Window art, chainmaille and Kazuri

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I’ve been busy with various projects these last few weeks.  Chainmailling has been my active obsession for at least a month now and I discovered Kazuri beads just last week.  Today we visited an old gristmill that is hosting an art show.  The family took an interest in the actual paintings and sculptures while I paid more attention to the “window dressing” in the mill.  Each window or available ledge was decorated with fall gourds, chestnuts and a green fruit/veggie (not sure what it is — if you know, post here and tell me!)   On the Twilight front, I’d been stalking the Twilight Convention site for a while now to see when tickets would be sold.  Low and behold, I found tickets on sale Thursday night.  I promptly purchased my Gold Packages on Friday morning! =)  Great seats this time. 

 {top – Twilight themed, beaded 6-in-1; bottom left – 8-in-1; bottom right – fall themed 6-in-1} 

{top – box chain charm; bottom – Kazuri bead necklaces}

 

~ More chainmaille weaves

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Made a few more bracelets this week.  Chainmailling is extremely addictive.  Once you get started, it really is hard to put down.  Placed another order for various sized rings with Blue Buddha Boutique.  I can’t wait to get them and start new projects – mainly Christmas presents for my nieces.

{top – 4-in-1; bottom – 6-in-1}

{byzantine}

 

~ 100K RAK Winner & Chainmaille Jewelry

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I’ve been extremely remiss in announcing the winner of the RAK in my previous post.  The winner is – Marianne – hooray!  Marianne, email me your address and I’ll send your books out this month.

I took a few weeks off from making my minibooks and started making chainmaille (or semblance of) after visiting the local bead shop, Off the Beading Path in Occoquan.  I totally fell in love with the dragonscale cuff they had on display for one of their classes.  Well, if you know me, you know that I don’t like to take classes so I did my own research and made a couple of them using online tutorials as well as a few other different weaves.  I purchased the colored jump rings from Blue Buddha Boutique, everything else from Michael’s.

{dragonscale – smaller all silver tone above; larger gold and silver tones below}

{3 in 2 above; helm chain below}

{4 in 1 with beads & double helm chain above; 2 in 2 with twists & 4 in 1 below}

 

{Captive Inverted Roundmaille with metal findings above; with Swarovski crystals below}