Photo Tutorial - 3D Christmas Tree

Author's Note
Our projects were very popular during the lifetime of our business and we wanted to ensure they continued to provide inspiration for chain maillers whatever their experience. It's a pleasure to see they will live on with Chainmaillers.com
-Sarah Austin

3D Christmas Tree

Make this fun 3D Christmas tree that can be used as a tree or table decoration, or just make one side and add a trunk for a festive tree pendant. The finished tree is 4cm tall (before the loop is added).

Materials

You will need:

122 square profile silver anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 5mm, WD 1.2mm
60 small rainbow mix (or colours of your choice) anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 3.6mm, WD 0.81mm
186 small silver anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 3.6mm, WD 0.81mm
30 medium rainbow mix (or colours of your choice) anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 4.2mm, WD 0.81mm
36 medium silver anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 4.2mm, WD 0.81mm
5cm silver plated eyepin or 0.8mm piece of wire (optional)

Tools:

two pairs of smooth jawed chain nose, flat nose, or bent nose pliers

Instructions

Note: To make the faces of the trees as in steps 1-11, you will be using the smaller silver and rainbow rings (ID 3.6mm, WD 0.81mm) to join the square profile rings.

Link two square rings to two closed silver rings and two closed red rings.
Weave one square ring through the two red rings and add four closed silver rings and two closed orange rings before closing. Make sure the closed silver rings are at the top of the chain. Link a second square ring through the same rings.
Repeat step 2 two more times, adding four silver rings and two coloured rings each time. Link the last square ring through the two coloured rings and add two closed silver rings before closing. Link a second square ring through the same rings. This is the bottom row of the chain.
You will now make the second row, linking square rings to the closed silver rings added to the first row of the tree.

Weave one square ring through the first pair of closed silver rings on the first row and the next two closed silver rings attached to the next pair of rings and close. Add a second square ring.
Because the weave becomes stiffer as you continue, you will need to add the small joining rings one at a time rather than adding closed rings as you did for the first row. Link two small silver and two small purple rings to the square rings added in step 4.
Weave two square rings through the next two pairs of closed silver rings and the pair of purple rings added in the previous step.
Link four small silver rings and two small green rings to the two square rings just added, ensuring the silver and green rings are in the correct order.
Repeat steps 6-7 adding two small red rings in place of the green. Link the last two square rings in the same way and link two small closed rings to them.
For the third row, repeat steps 4-7 and finish with two square rings in the same way and link two small closed rings to them.
For the fourth row, repeat steps 4-6, adding two small silver rings to the last pair of square rings added.
Link two square rings to the two pairs of loose silver rings to finish the first side of your tree.
Repeat steps 1-11 to make two more tree triangles - these are the tree sides.

Repeat steps 1-11 to make a fourth tree triangle (the base) only using small silver rings. Do not add some of the rings as shown on row 2 - these are added in step 13.
The rings added in this step are shown in blue for clarity.

Link pairs of medium (id 4.2mm) rings at the centre of the tree base.
Close two square rings and open six small silver rings (id 3.6mm). Weave one silver ring through one pair of the medium rings added to the tree base in the previous step and the two closed square rings. Repeat with a second small ring, weaving through the same medium rings. Link pairs of rings to each of the medium pairs of rings on the tree base and the closed square rings.
Using medium silver rings (id 4.2mm), link the bottom of each tree side to one of the tree base sides.
Open thirty medium rainbow rings (id 4.2mm). Turn the tree over so that the tree stump is underneath.

Lift up two sides so that the base fits inside the outer sides (left hand picture).

Position one side on top of the outer edge of the other side (right hand picture). Link the side with pairs of rainbow rings.

Repeat to join the third side of the tree. If you are adding the eyepin loop, you can slip the eyepin in before you link the last side rings - see step 17 to finish off.
Optional: If you are adding a wire loop at the top and didn't do so in step 16, thread the eyepin into the middle of the tree and up through the top apex. Grasp the end of the eyepin and make a loop around a wide part of the pliers until you reach the top of the tree.

Variations

Use green square rings with silver, red and gold rings instead of the rainbow rings and link with green rings instead of silver.
For a pendant, make one side of the tree to step 11 and add a two ring wide stump on the bottom centre side.

Photo Tutorial 3D Christmas Tree