Photo Tutorial Beaded Round Maille Necklace

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

Beaded Round Maille Necklace​

Weave a section of beaded round maille and add unbeaded lengths on either side to make this chunky necklace.

Make a simpler version of a beaded bracelet in European 4-1. For instructions, click here.

Make a matching beaded round maille bracelet. For instructions, click here.

Materials​

For an 53.5cm (21 inches) necklace, you will need:

• 264 large black ice anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 5mm, WD 1.2mm - beaded round maille rings
• 640 small black ice anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm - non-beaded round maille rings
• 11g (129 beads) silver lined aqua size 6 Miyuki seed beads - you can make this section shorter so that you only need to purchase 10g
• black finish small Anna's Tierracast toggle - 9.8x13mm

Tools:

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

Instructions​

1. Steps 1-3 use the large id 5mm, 1.2mm jump rings.
   
   Open one jump ring, add one seed bead and close. Make 129 seed beaded rings. Open 86 rings. (You do not need to make all the beaded rings or open all the rings but it is handy to have a small pile from which to work).
   
   Link four seed beaded rings with one jump ring. Position the rings as shown in the left hand picture, making sure that you orientate the rings in exactly the same way.
   
   Weave one open ring through the lower left hand ring and through the lower right hand ring. Add two beaded rings before closing the jump ring (centre picture). Make sure to push the seed beads on the rings to the side so that they do not get caught underneath your work.
   
   Repeat until you have made a strip 42 centre rings long (or shorter if you are working with 10g of seed beads) - right hand picture. When you turn the strip into round maille, it will shorten.
   
   
   
   
   
2. You will now widen the strip.
   
   Weave one open ring through the second and then first beaded edge rings of your strip, making sure that the seed beads are pushed to the front of your work. Link two beaded rings and close (left hand picture).
   
   Weave one ring through the third, then second beaded edge ring of the strip, and through the last closed beaded ring added. Again, make sure that the seed beads are pushed to the front of your work or to the side as appropriate so that the beads do not get caught underneath your work. Add one beaded ring (right hand picture).
   
   
   
   
   
3. Continue adding a single beaded ring each time to the edge of your strip until you have reached the end of the strip.
   
   
   
   
   
4. You will now continue with the unbeaded sections using the small black ice rings in the small, id 3.8mm, 1.00mm jump rings. Open and close a small pile of rings.
   
   Add pairs of unbeaded rings to the beaded section as in step 1 until it is 52 centre rings long. Widen the strip as in step 2.
   
   The left hand picture shows the European 4-1 weave as a continuation of steps 1-3.
   
   The centre picture shows the end of the unbeaded strip.
   
   The three rings added to the end of the strip are shown in red in the left hand picture. At the end of the strip, weave one ring between the centre ring and each edge ring. Weave one ring through the two rings just added.
   
   
   
   
   
5. You will now repeat step 4 at the other end of the strip. The picture shows the weave from the other end of the beaded section (i.e. the starting point of the weave). Note that the rings are orientated differently.
   
   Repeat step 4, weaving the rings as shown.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Open the remaining small rings, id 3.8mm, 1.00mm. Lay out the completed strip with the reverse side facing you and the rings orientated the same way as the first picture below.
   
   Curl your strip between your thumb and forefinger of your non-dominant hand so that the two sides meet. Weave one ring through the intersection of the first and second edge rings on the right hand side. Continue weaving the ring through the intersection of the second and first edge rings on the left hand side. Close the jump ring (first picture).
   
   Continue joining the sides of the strip by weaving through the corresponding intersections of the edge rings until you have reached the last small edge rings.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Weave one small ring through the intersection of the last small edge ring and the first large edge ring on the right hand side. Continue weaving the ring through the intersection of the large and small edge rings on the left hand side. Close the jump ring (first picture). Make sure that the seed beads are pushed to the side and do not get caught underneath the joining ring.
   
   Change to the large id 5mm, 1.2mm rings. Continue joining the sides of the beaded strip by weaving through the corresponding intersections of the edge rings until you have reached the last beaded edge rings.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Weave one large ring through the intersection of the last large edge ring and the first small edge ring on the right hand side. Continue weaving the ring through the intersection of the small and large edge rings on the left hand side. Close the jump ring.
   
   Change to the small id 3.8mm, 1.00mm rings. Continue joining the sides of the unbeaded strip by weaving through the corresponding intersections of the edge rings until you have reached the end of the strip.
   
   
   
   
   
9. At each end of the necklace, attach the toggle ring and toggle bar with one small ring.
   
   

Variations​

• Use matt silver (white) rings with a pastel coloured seed bead, finishing off with a silver plated clasp.
• Use mixed shades of a single colour seed bead with a neutral coloured jump ring, either as a random mix or graduating the colour.
• Use a contrasting colour for the smaller round maille rings to make the beaded round maille section more of a feature.

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©2021 Sarah Austin. All rights reserved.