Overview

I wanted to make something for my friend, so I spent some time with them discussing ideas and looking at weaves. Eventually, she settled on Rosetta, and I decided to make a set of bracelets and earrings with a flower theme. I also decided to try integrating rubber rings to make the bracelets easy to take on/off. Overall, after finishing them, my friend and I are happy with the results.

Materials

For this project, I procured leverback earring findings at Michaels instead of my usual supplier. From my usual supplier (The Ring Lord), I got the rest of the items I used to make this set:

Material/Colour Option Details
Green Rubber 16 SWG, 1/4” ID EPDM Rubber rings in green
Matte Green Aluminum 16 SWG, 1/4” ID Matte Aluminum rings in green
Matte Purple Aluminum 16 SWG, 1/4” ID Matte Aluminum rings in purple
Matte Royal Blue Aluminum 16 SWG, 1/4” ID Matte Aluminum rings in royal blue
Stainless Steel 20 SWG, 5/32” ID Stainless Steel rings

Notes

Coming Up With The Idea

While thinking about what to make this month, nothing clear came to mind, so I decided to make something for a friend. I asked my friends if anybody was interested in having some custom chainmail, and one of them took me up on the offer. I spent some time with her going over the weaves on my website to generate some ideas of what she might want. She eventually settled on the Rosetta weave and wanted a bracelet made from it. I then spent some time going over the material options with her, and we settled on using rubber over a clasp to make it easier to take on/off. We also went over colour options and settled on a floral theme with a green central chain and two colours for the additions to achieve a look like a ring of flowers. As her colour choices were for colours I didn’t have on hand, I needed to order full bags of each, much more than I needed to make a single bracelet. With the extra materials, I decided to make a pair of bracelets and matching earrings.

Making The Set

While Rosetta is simple and quite easy to make, there were some complications; however, in the end, it was still fairly easy to make (photos here). The complications came from integrating rubber rings into the wave and the use of matte rings.

Integrating the rubber rings was trivial since Rosetta is essentially a 2-2-2 chain with rings added to that core. I integrated the rubber rings in the core chain by creating a core of alternating pairs of rubber and aluminum rings. However, I was not sure if the rubber rings in the core chain would allow it to stretch enough. After making the first few units, it was clear the rubber allowed it to stretch enough since the added rings only lock the rubber rings to one pair of aluminum rings.

Due to the inclusion of matte rings, I ran into issues with the rings whitening when bent (shown here) and scratching more easily. To avoid scratching rings, I used two approaches, being careful when manipulating rings with pliers and replacing any ring that got scratched too badly. Sadly, I could not keep the rings from whitening when bent. It happened even with very small bends (~1.5 wire diameter), though larger bends made the problem worse. While I was not able to prevent the whitening, I was able to minimize it by using minimal bends and rotating the rings on the bracelets/earrings to keep them out of sight (thankfully, the friction from the rubber helps keep them that way).

Conclusion

I am not happy that I could not find a solution to the ring whitening issue and could only hide it; however, you have to be close and actively look for it to notice it, so it is fairly low impact. I will spend a bit more time on the whitening issue, as I have used matte rings a few times, and it appears to be intermittent. Overall, my friend is happy with the results and likes the set; seeing her excited reaction made me very happy with the ultimate result.

Pictures

Full Set

Full Set: Smiling

Bracelets

Earrings

Ring Bend Issue

In Process