Photo Tutorial Curvy Rainbow Byzantine

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

Curvy Rainbow Byzantine​

Materials​

For a 21cm bracelet, you will need:

• 72 red saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 72 orange saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 36 yellow saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 36 green saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 72 royal blue saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 72 purple saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm
• 10 rainbow mix saw cut anodised aluminium jump rings, ID 10.2mm, WD 1.6mm - 2 red, 2 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 2 royal blue, 2 purple
• gold plated medium wrapped Tierracast toggle, 12x16mm
• one headpin or piece of wire (optional)

Each colour block needs 32 ID 3.8mm, WD 1.00mm rings. The bracelet instructions are for a bracelet of 10 blocks of colour. You will need fewer blocks of colour if you are making a shorter bracelet: each colour block is about 2cm long.

Tools:

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

Instructions​

1. Close four small orange rings. Link two closed rings to the toggle ring with one small orange ring. Add the last pair of closed orange rings to the end of the chain with two small orange rings.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Fold back the last pair of small orange rings added. Referring to the picture, place your headpin between the new last pair of orange rings and through the two rings you have just folded back.
   
   
   
   
   
3. The headpin will help you place the next pair of rings added in the next step.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Link two small orange rings following the pathway of the headpin.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Close two small orange rings. Link these two closed rings to the two rings added in step 4.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Repeat steps 2-5.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Repeat steps 2-5 four more times. When you repeat step 5 for the last time, link two small red rings. You will have folded back pairs of rings six times.
   
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat steps 2-5 six times using small red rings, finishing with two small purple rings. Continue making your Byzantine chain in blocks of colour in the following order: purple, royal blue, green, yellow, orange, red, purple, royal blue. On the sixth repeat of step 5, use two rings of the next colour block.
   
   Before adding the last two colour blocks, you may wish to move onto steps 9-11 to gauge the final length of your bracelet.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Open one large orange ring and thread it through the six orange folded back rings on one side of your Byzantine chain.
   
   
   
   
   
10. Open one large red ring and, on the opposite side of the chain, thread it through the last orange folded back ring and the following six red folded back rings.
    
    
    
    
    
11. Repeat step 10 using matching large rings threaded through one folded back ring of the previous colour and six folded back rings of the same colour. Thread the large rings on alternate sides of the chain.
    
    
    
    
    
12. Link the toggle bar to the end of the chain using one jump ring. If you need to lengthen your bracelet by a few millimetres (in other words, less than a block of colour), lengthen the Byzantine chain equally on each end of the chain to the desired length.
    
    
    
    

Variations​

• Try other colour combinations such as soft pastel - lavender, ice pink, ice blue and ice green.
• Make a bold two-tone bracelet, such as red and black.
• Just use a single colour like champagne for a vintage look, or try ice black or silver.

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©2021 Sarah Austin. All rights reserved.