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
If you found this tutorial helpful: Please let other users know, leave a rating.
©2021 Sarah Austin. All rights reserved.
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
Dragonscale Diamond Pendant & Earrings
Make diamond shapes with dragonscale by working and shaping from the side rather than from top to bottom. The earrings are made using anodised aluminium so that they are not too heavy to wear.Materials
For a pair of earrings (4.2cm long diamond), you will need:- 72 large lavender anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 5.2mm, WD 0.8mm
- 64 small purple anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 3.6mm, WD 0.81mm
- one pair of purple anodised niobium earwires
- 62 large lavender anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 5.2mm, WD 0.8mm
- 60 small purple anodised aluminium saw cut jump rings, ID 3.6mm, WD 0.81mm
- 46cm small chain
- one silver plated lobster clasp
- two pairs of smooth jawed chain nose, flat nose, or bent nose pliers
Instructions
- Link two closed small rings with one large ring (upper left hand picture).
Make a one-in one chain linking three small rings with two large rings as shown in the lower left hand picture.
Place the one-in-one chain on top of the large ring linked to two small rings (right hand picture).
- Link one large ring through the upper two small rings so that it encircles the small ring beneath, as shown in the left hand picture.
Link one large ring through the second upper small ring so that it encircles the end small ring (centre picture).
Link one large ring through the first upper small ring so that it encircles the first small ring (right hand picture).
- Link one large ring through the lower small ring 1 (first picture).
Link one large ring through lower small rings 1 and 2 (second picture).
Link one large ring through lower small rings 2 and 3 (third picture).
Link one large ring through lower small ring 3 (fourth picture).
- Turn your piece over as shown in the left hand picture. The arrow points to the centre small ring, which is caught beneath the large ring above it. You need to lift the large ring so that the small ring can slip inside it. The arrow in the second picture shows you how the small ring should lay in relation to the large ring.
TIP: Your weave will be starting to bunch up a little and you may need to tweak some rings into place as just described - this needs to be done whenever you add the small rings. If this is not done, the weave will become too stiff to work. If you forget to tweak a row, you will not be able to go back to it without undoing your work. The instructions will prompt you to tweak the rings whenever needed.
- Turn your piece back over to the working side. You will now continue to increase the number of small and large rings per row. When adding small and large rings in the increasing rows, there will always be one ring linked to one ring at each end of the row.
Add four small rings, weaving through the row of large rings (referred to as the row beneath) which lay below the uppermost row of large rings.
Link one small ring to the first large ring on the row beneath (top left hand picture).
Weave one small ring through the first and second large rings on the row beneath (top right hand picture).
Weave one small ring through the second and third large rings on the row beneath (bottom left hand picture).
Weave one small ring through the last large ring on the row beneath (bottom right hand picture).
- Turn your piece over. The red arrows in the first picture show the small rings caught beneath the large rings as described in step 4.
Lift the large rings above so that the small rings can slot into place as shown by the red arrows in the centre picture.
Turn your piece back over to the working side (third picture).
- You will now add five large rings to the small rings just added.
Link one large ring to the first small ring (top left hand picture).
Link one large ring through the second and third small rings (top centre picture).
Link one large ring through the third and fourth small rings (top right hand picture).
Link one large ring through the fourth and fifth small rings (bottom left hand picture).
Link one large ring through the last small ring (bottm right picture).
In steps 8-13 you will continue to add rings as in steps 5-7. Each row will detail how many small and large rings you need to link in order to form the diamond shape.
- Link five small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place as in step 6.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link six large rings (right hand picture). The first and last large rings will become the top and bottom most rings of the finished diamond.
- You will now begin to decrease the number of rings per row. When adding small and large rings in decreasing rows, you will normally link two rings.
Link four small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link five large rings as shown in the right hand picture - this is the only row of large rings where the first and last rings are linked to only one small ring.
- Link five small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link four large rings (right hand picture).
- Link four small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link three large rings (right hand picture).
- Link three small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link two large rings (right hand picture).
- Link two small rings (left hand picture).
Turn your piece over and tweak your small rings into place.
Turn your piece back over to the working side and link one large ring (right hand picture).
- Turn your diamond around so that it is lengthways. Open the topmost large ring and attach to your earwire.
- Repeat steps 1-14 to make a second earring.
Dragonscale Diamond Pendant
- To make the pendant, repeat steps 1-8. Continue increasing the number of small and large rings until your piece is eight rings wide as follows:
Link six small rings, tweak the small rings into place, and link seven large rings.
Link seven small rings, tweak the small rings into place, and link eight large rings.
- You will now begin to decrease the number of rings as follows:
Link six small rings, tweak the small rings into place, and link seven large rings.
Link seven small rings, tweak the small rings into place, and link six large rings.
Link six small rings, tweak the small rings into place, and link five large rings.
Continue to decrease as in steps 10-13.
- Turn your diamond around so that it is lengthways. Open the topmost large ring and attach to the centre link of your chain. Open the end link of the chain and attach the lobster clasp.
Variations
- Use dark colours against a light colour - rose pink and ice pink, lime green and green.
- Use large matt silver rings with small pastel coloured rings.
- Use large silver rings with rainbow rings - you'll need to plan the placement of the different colours if you want to have rows of each colour.
If you found this tutorial helpful: Please let other users know, leave a rating.
©2021 Sarah Austin. All rights reserved.