Project Elf Chain
Feb. 1st, 2010 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzI promised to write something about my newest project today, and I come bearing pictures. Click on any image to be taken to the Flickr set.
New project is Project Elf Chain, a chainmail with an elven tinge. I ordered the rings from my friend Steelweaver's business The Queen Ring and picked them up last Friday. I can hardly recall what started the inspiration, but I intend to make an elvish twist on the Riders of Rohan outfit. Yes, that includes a calf-length chainmail.
Since I can't wear any chainmail without getting a blistering headache -- the steel drags on my shoulder and neck muscles -- and a long chain like that will be very heavy indeed, I chose aluminium rings. And since I can't wrap my head around the regular 4-in-1 European weave normal chainmails are made of, I decided on Japanese 6-in-1 but with double connecting rings (making it like 12-in-1 or just a die-hard variety of 6-in-1). This is a weave using two ring sizes, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
twilightbanana helped determine my ring size.
The best way to start any project: a huge pile of something.
Green: 300 rings per bag. Gold: 500 rings per bag.
So now I have 56.300 rings, waiting for me to weave them. The best part about this weave is that it's easy to weave -- well, if you're weaving fifty thousand rings together, you're bound to get really good at any weave or give up! -- and that I can close all large rings, and open up all small rings and weave on. This makes it extremely easy to prepare for the actual weaving. Opening or closing rings can be done in public transport (not buses, though), or while watching tv or listening to BBC World Radio. I have a lovely transport case filled with rings for that. Following Twi's example, I have two pouches to store the 'prepared' rings in.
It holds roughly 1/10th of all my rings.
A size comparison. Not such large rings at all.
During the watching of Burn After Reading and Van Helsing I made a lot of progress in closing the green rings I had put into the case, and I finished the job at the in-laws' place the next day. What's even better: you can weave the 'flowers' together in two stages too. First, you create a long strand of green rings, connected by double gold rings. Then you just fold the strand double and connect each green rings to two others, creating a strand of two rows of green rings. I connected two double strands together to get the beginning of a sheet.
I intend to do monthly updates to show my progress. I've also e-mailed Keffie about installing a bi-weekly weaving night, but he hasn't replied yet (he's making a European 4-in-1 green aluminium chainmail with a brown tree in it). There's a Flickr set for the project, linked in the sidebar next to this journal. I can't wait to see the progress of several months.
I must say, it feels like I've done a lot already, which might not be so. After all, it's just a sheet of 40 by 5 centimeters, so far. On the other hand, I've already closed one tenth of the total, and I'm in the progress of opening all the gold rings so I can get on with weaving a lot. I've got a meeting witharoka planned on Thursday, which will see me in a train, weaving my maille.
Tight weave!
As for the rest of the costume, I'm unsure when it'll be done, so I'm only loosely planning the rest of the outfit. I am sure it'll be very green, to offset the gold, and very velvety because it has to look as chique as the maille.
Initially, Keffie and I joked it would be Beriadanwen and Amras' court costume, but according to the Omen rules we aren't allowed to wear chainmail as woodelves. Still, it'll be quite a show costume, and we can wear our chainmail costume to faires as well. In any case, it's no use to worry about it until we're anywhere near finishing this humongous project. I'm not planning when I want to have finished it, either. It will probably take me a few years.
New project is Project Elf Chain, a chainmail with an elven tinge. I ordered the rings from my friend Steelweaver's business The Queen Ring and picked them up last Friday. I can hardly recall what started the inspiration, but I intend to make an elvish twist on the Riders of Rohan outfit. Yes, that includes a calf-length chainmail.
Since I can't wear any chainmail without getting a blistering headache -- the steel drags on my shoulder and neck muscles -- and a long chain like that will be very heavy indeed, I chose aluminium rings. And since I can't wrap my head around the regular 4-in-1 European weave normal chainmails are made of, I decided on Japanese 6-in-1 but with double connecting rings (making it like 12-in-1 or just a die-hard variety of 6-in-1). This is a weave using two ring sizes, and
twilightbanana helped determine my ring size. The best way to start any project: a huge pile of something.
Green: 300 rings per bag. Gold: 500 rings per bag.
So now I have 56.300 rings, waiting for me to weave them. The best part about this weave is that it's easy to weave -- well, if you're weaving fifty thousand rings together, you're bound to get really good at any weave or give up! -- and that I can close all large rings, and open up all small rings and weave on. This makes it extremely easy to prepare for the actual weaving. Opening or closing rings can be done in public transport (not buses, though), or while watching tv or listening to BBC World Radio. I have a lovely transport case filled with rings for that. Following Twi's example, I have two pouches to store the 'prepared' rings in.
It holds roughly 1/10th of all my rings.
A size comparison. Not such large rings at all.
During the watching of Burn After Reading and Van Helsing I made a lot of progress in closing the green rings I had put into the case, and I finished the job at the in-laws' place the next day. What's even better: you can weave the 'flowers' together in two stages too. First, you create a long strand of green rings, connected by double gold rings. Then you just fold the strand double and connect each green rings to two others, creating a strand of two rows of green rings. I connected two double strands together to get the beginning of a sheet.
I intend to do monthly updates to show my progress. I've also e-mailed Keffie about installing a bi-weekly weaving night, but he hasn't replied yet (he's making a European 4-in-1 green aluminium chainmail with a brown tree in it). There's a Flickr set for the project, linked in the sidebar next to this journal. I can't wait to see the progress of several months.
I must say, it feels like I've done a lot already, which might not be so. After all, it's just a sheet of 40 by 5 centimeters, so far. On the other hand, I've already closed one tenth of the total, and I'm in the progress of opening all the gold rings so I can get on with weaving a lot. I've got a meeting with
aroka planned on Thursday, which will see me in a train, weaving my maille. Tight weave!
As for the rest of the costume, I'm unsure when it'll be done, so I'm only loosely planning the rest of the outfit. I am sure it'll be very green, to offset the gold, and very velvety because it has to look as chique as the maille.
Initially, Keffie and I joked it would be Beriadanwen and Amras' court costume, but according to the Omen rules we aren't allowed to wear chainmail as woodelves. Still, it'll be quite a show costume, and we can wear our chainmail costume to faires as well. In any case, it's no use to worry about it until we're anywhere near finishing this humongous project. I'm not planning when I want to have finished it, either. It will probably take me a few years.
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Date: 2010-02-01 01:11 pm (UTC)question: how much do all the little rings weigh together?
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Date: 2010-02-02 07:28 am (UTC)Next update on or around March first. Thanks!
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