Chain weaving: types and techniques

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:45

We are used to seeing chain mail on people who are passionate about historical reenactments, on fantasy lovers and role-players. However, it happens that such jewelry becomes a rage, and now all models are wearing bracelets woven using chain mail technique. In this article, you will learn what chain weaving is, its varieties, and whether it is difficult for beginners to master this technique.

Weaving "chain mail": a universal and unusual technique

Mail weaving is certainly loved by representatives of various subcultures. So, half-arm bracers are a dream accessory for bikers and metalheads. Reenactors prefer some kind of souvenir products or give their girls jewelry knitted in this technique. Openwork metal will appeal to representatives of the Gothic. Steampunk lovers will not pass by brass and copper jewelry, as they will be a great addition to their costumes. Mail weaving is associated with the worlds of the Middle Ages and the Middle-earth.

But something else is important.

Chainmail weaving of bracelets and other jewelry will be a great addition to a casual look - both work, everyday and universal. An interesting chain on the hand, openwork metal earrings, a ring with an unusual pattern looks original, but not defiant. Chainmail weaving of bracelets and other jewelry is something that is suitable both for office work and for surprising friends and colleagues, while remaining within the dress code.

This alternative to expensive jewelry is something more variable, large, interesting and varied in terms of weaving.

The difference from the usual types of gold chains - Bismarck, anchor, shell

The technique of chain weaving is the interweaving of individual rings in one product.

Auxiliary parts are often used to make a chain in classical jewelry craft. For example, rings with overlaps, spirals in the weave "rose" and other elements. In addition, soldering is often used, and the resulting chain is subjected to additional final processing - edge modification, broaching or rolling.

"Mail" is made only with the help of single rings. Wire for chainmail weaving can be used along with the purchased material. All structures, patterns and shapes create exclusively metal rings from various materials.

There is another characteristic thatchain weaving. Instructions and diagrams do not always reflect it. This type of jewelry weaving goes "both in depth and in breadth." Decoration can be not only one-dimensional, like a line or a chain, but also make up a full-fledged canvas or sculptural composition.

Types of chain mail weaving are even more diverse than ordinary jewelry. There are more than one thousand species in the classification, which is a problem for those who buy the product: unenlightened buyers initially dazzle in the eyes, and this makes it difficult to make a choice.

When did chainmail begin to be used to make jewelry and not just protective gear?

When this species began to move into the decorative sphere, it is very difficult to say. There are many different theories about the "weaving of these genres", but information about most of them, as well as examples of works, did not survive in the era of the absence of the Internet.

The use of chain mail to create decorative jewelry, in fact, has to be reinvented from scratch. Of course, the genetic relationship of this technique with the main methods of manufacturing protective armor is the basis for the formulation of various theories, but none of them can be called unconditionally correct today.

How to choose materials? What metals are commonly used for bracelets and necklaces?

The whole process of making jewelry is done by hand. For such products, you can use various metals, calculating the characteristics of the future productby strength. It is necessary to take into account the rigidity of the metal, the characteristics of the weave itself, as well as the dimensions of the rings.

The most popular materials are steel, copper, silver and brass. In addition, niobium, bronze, titanium, sometimes gold can be used.

What products can be made using this technique?

Chainmail weaving is universal: from "chainmail" it is possible to make whatever your heart desires - from small rings to the gates of the house. This genre has the widest possibilities: on the net you can find candlesticks made in this technique, chess, sculptures, blankets for horses and much more.

What is the process like? What does it compare to for a layman?

The rings are closed by being threaded into each other in a certain way.

For clarity, this process can be explained with an example. Imagine that you have at the same time a fabric that can become immobile and strong, and a rope. In almost all chain mail weaves, the base is a chain, a line. Most of them can be expanded: in this way a canvas or a plane is obtained. By modifying the thickness parameter, you can give the product hardness and inflexibility.

How difficult is this type of weaving for a beginner?

It all depends on the goal of a particular person. Understand in what sequence it is necessary to close the rings in order to get one or another pattern, perhaps in a day or several. And then there is the question of ambition: how many weaves a beginner wants to master and how well he wantssharpen the technique. And since their number is incalculable, the training period can last indefinitely.

Which weaving is the most popular?

Mostly "on hearing" people have no more than a dozen species. They are either basic or migrated to the jewelry craft. This is Persian, European, Byzantine, Japanese, box.

Is it possible that people in such jewelry are looking not for the craftsmanship of the manufacturer and beautiful weaving technique, but for the solution to some of their problems?

Often chain mail is positioned as a solution to the problem of ste alth and security. As the practice of reading customer reviews and flash mobs like “describe this piece of jewelry” shows, people see the same thing in them.

Products made using the technique of chain-mail weaving, in addition to other basic qualities, are considered at the associative and emotional levels as a means of protection, a piece of armor. To the touch, they just resemble the flexible and flowing armor on the arm, especially if the jewelry is wide enough, for example, massive necklaces or bracelets in the form of canvases.

These are armor elements disguised as decorations. The one who wears it is endowed with symbolic security, while others see only an elegant decoration.

In addition, products made using the chain mail technique are very tactile. Each type behaves in its own way: one can be flexible, the other - dense, the third - with rotating elements, the fourth - with slipping,fifth - with those going into a spring … With flexible weaves, you can play and crumple in your hands just endlessly.

Even chain mail often becomes a symbol. When creating a product of a certain design, you need to know a piece of history associated with it, to find associations to weaving in order to recognize yourself, significant symbols and needs in a thing.