Captain of the Anarquendor - part 3
Jun. 9th, 2011 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzLast time I showed you all about my progress in making a gambeson mock-up and you received a sneak peek at my chainmail. I promised to tell you more about that in the next installment.
A friend of mine runs a (web)shop selling chainmail rings (The Queen Ring). She does a brisk trade and has been doing for several years. I've managed to keep the addiction at bay -- for years on end I did not even want to start on making maille jewelry or working on chainmail because I already had my hands full with my other sewing hobbies. Story of my life: if I see a new craft I usually get addicted to it really quickly (like weaving, and kumihimo, and quilting, and blackwork etc.etc.)
Just as I closed up my own costume shop for lack of time in December 2009, I offered to help her out at her store on a ren faire, and one thing led to another. Mostly, it led to a huge pile of rings:
I was well and truly stricken by the Maille bug. I wanted to start on a big project. I never quite got the hang of European 4-in-1 because the rings just kept falling over the wrong way and I didn't quite see how to stick the next ring in, but that's a problem with most maille weaves. After a few tries at a Byzantine weave, it was time for a larger project.
Wouldn't it be cool, I said (and most of my friends know to stop me at this point before I spent hundreds of euro on a project I'll probably never finish) if I were to make a chainmail for Beriadanwen in green and gold?
And I steamed on ahead, ordered the rings along with some help from said friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
steelweaver and her partner twilightbanana for ring size. Ring size is important, because if your aspect ratio is off, your weave will not work.
76 bags of 500 gold rings -- 61 bags of 300 green rings; making for 56300 rings in total (I got a complimentary bag extra of each kind because of my large order). This is all anodised aluminium. The anodisation process adds the colour to the aluminium.
That's a big pile of rings...
These pictures date back to January 29th of 2010. Please remember that... the Plan for the Chainmail is kinda old. All those rings still needed to be processed.
I bought a tupperware case to easily bring the rings along wherever I go. I commute by public transport and most of the work on what I promptly dubbed "Project Elf Chain" could be done during my commute.
A single "flower" of my weave. The aspect ratio for these rings is pretty awesome.
The rings, when they are made, are not completely closed, nor are they completely open. They are made from a long spiral and sawed along one end, so the edges of each ring are offset by a bit. (Picture here)
This means that each ring must either be fully closed, or opened further, in order to work with them. And thus started my tedious task of closing all green rings, and opening all the gold rings. This is one of the things I can very easily do on the train, especially if I bring my travel case.
But it was far too much fun to make progress, and progress I did. By February 1st, 2010, I had made some 40 cm by four rows high.
The weave is technically Japanese 6-in-1 but since I have double the amount of gold rings I guess you could call it 12-in-1 as well. Japanese weaves have the rings at a 90 degree angle, while European weaves have them slanted over eachother. (Example of European 4-in-1)
12-in-1 is twice as much trouble as 6-in-1 would be. I wondered, at this point (mid-February 2010) if 6-in-1 wouldn't be just as nice. I made a short test-piece:
The 12-in-1 is much better in my opinion, since it is filled out more and less flimsy. But at least I knew before I had gone very far how this looked, and I was glad to know it. It made the work for 12-in-1 more meaningful.
Work continued apace and I tried making pictures each month.
March 2010: Just to show how flexible the sheet is. And how awesome the maille is.
I also focused on optimising the process. Connecing loose rings is an option, but it goes a wee bit faster if you've already got a chain. I made a pouch of some scraps of fabrics to store my chains in... but as you can see they kind of tangle.
April 1st, 2010: two pouches with thousands of rings ready to attach, and one sheet of 56 (green) rings wide and 37 and a half rows high.
At this point I'd like to point out that the 56 rings wide was not a vague made-up figure. When I started, I made a chain and connected both ends. I tried if I could get the chain around my upper torso like a t-shirt (over my head). It did. I folded the chain double on itself, thus making the first two rows of my sheet. Later I optimised the offset so the edges would fit together without trouble.
Basically, you can work on chainmail wherever you have a flat surface. Opening and closing rings can be done with a travel case, and attaching the chain can be done while en-route to work... Here is my setup for attaching chain to the sheet while on the train.
June 1st, 2010: I'm doing mostly prep work. Opening gold rings in the train to work.
The sheet is now 50 x 56 rings, and I've started work on the second sheet, which at this time is 12 rows high.
October 13, 2010: Second sheet is now some 50 rings high. I'm getting very close to actually having to think about the armscyes.
I'm not working on this Chainmail every day, and I take a big break of several weeks sometimes. By the time both sheets are 50x56 rings (just the green rings counted, of course) it turns out I'm afraid of the armscyes. I stop and wait for a few months.
April 1st, 2011
I've decided it's silly to be scared of armscyes. With the way Japanese 12-in-1 works, raglan sleeves should be do-able. I make a start, just skipping over a few rings and taking off one ring at each row. We go for a mini-break to a bungalow parc and I bring the chain along to work on.
It's now large enough to model on me. It nearly fits, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Around this time, the Project Elf Chain slowly gets merged to the "We're going to Drachenfest" idea.
April 30, 2011: Queensday update. The front sheet is recognisable (left) and I'm still working on the back piece. I've also nearly run out of rings and ordered an additional 6000 gold rings.
Since the anodising process has changed, these will be the last rings I can get that will look the same. The new anodised aluminium is very shiny and will not match what I've created so far.
May 25, 2011: I spend some time threading the pattern pieces together after I finish them. I've by this time bought the fabrics for my gambeson and put everything on the mannequin.
OMG! It's really a shirt!
This is also the first time I realise I might actually make it work.
It's been a race against the clock and it was and still is a race until I run out of rings. 44.000 gold rings is all I have and it's all I can get unless I find a different supplier and pray they have my ring size. Trust me: 44.000 gold rings is going to be a tight squeeze!
At first I wanted to add real raglan sleeves but by May I figure out I will not have enough gold rings for that. I settle for making it a sleeveless shirt, and if I have enough time I will add scalemail sleeves. I've worked with small scales for a leather armour before and it's just as much fun as regular chainmail.
The offset is perfect (I fixed that fairly early on). But before I can close up the sides I will need to fit it over my gambeson.
The shoulder fail!
I had wanted to make a triangle over the shoulders to attach front to back, but it turns out that this will not work. The triangle's side slopes will not be steep enough to reach the front raglan armscye.
So I do what any sensible craftsman does: Call in the helper troups.twilightbanana advises me to make two triangles and join them at an angle. This is similar to the technique for European 4-in-1, but because 12-in-1 already has the angle built into the weave, it will be easier.
Two triangles make a diamond-shape. And it fits nearly perfectly to the front and back armscye!
Now that that's attached, there's a bit of an overhang on the shoulder. These kinds of shapes cannot be planned for. My mannequin isn't quite the same size as me and as soon as I take off the shirt the shape will collapse. We thread through the rings to make the shape of the shoulders and I remove the overhang.
To make sure left armscye is the same as the right, I use an earring as a counting aid. I needed something that can be moved easily, and that I can hang onto the rings. Maybe a more simple model would have worked, but I can't wear earrings anyway, so that's OK.
And that's where I was at last night!
What still needs to be done:
- The front armscye needs some more shaping done, as part of my boob is exposed still. This I can do.
- The gold-coloured aluminium scales will come in at the beginning of July. I will make scale sleeveheads and work with a European 4-in-1 weave at the bottom of the sleeves so ease of movement is maintained. I have plenty of green rings left for the sleeves, and I'm no hurry. If needs be, I can do this after Drachenfest.
- Once the gambeson is done, I will wear the maille shirt over the gambeson to see if it fits or if it needs extra room. I'm quickly running out of rings, so I really hope I don't have to make it much bigger.
Stay tuned, for next time I will have finished the gambeson, and boy that is a story to tell as well.
Cross-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
dressdiaries
A friend of mine runs a (web)shop selling chainmail rings (The Queen Ring). She does a brisk trade and has been doing for several years. I've managed to keep the addiction at bay -- for years on end I did not even want to start on making maille jewelry or working on chainmail because I already had my hands full with my other sewing hobbies. Story of my life: if I see a new craft I usually get addicted to it really quickly (like weaving, and kumihimo, and quilting, and blackwork etc.etc.)
Just as I closed up my own costume shop for lack of time in December 2009, I offered to help her out at her store on a ren faire, and one thing led to another. Mostly, it led to a huge pile of rings:
I was well and truly stricken by the Maille bug. I wanted to start on a big project. I never quite got the hang of European 4-in-1 because the rings just kept falling over the wrong way and I didn't quite see how to stick the next ring in, but that's a problem with most maille weaves. After a few tries at a Byzantine weave, it was time for a larger project.
Wouldn't it be cool, I said (and most of my friends know to stop me at this point before I spent hundreds of euro on a project I'll probably never finish) if I were to make a chainmail for Beriadanwen in green and gold?
And I steamed on ahead, ordered the rings along with some help from said friend
steelweaver and her partner twilightbanana for ring size. Ring size is important, because if your aspect ratio is off, your weave will not work.76 bags of 500 gold rings -- 61 bags of 300 green rings; making for 56300 rings in total (I got a complimentary bag extra of each kind because of my large order). This is all anodised aluminium. The anodisation process adds the colour to the aluminium.
That's a big pile of rings...
These pictures date back to January 29th of 2010. Please remember that... the Plan for the Chainmail is kinda old. All those rings still needed to be processed.
I bought a tupperware case to easily bring the rings along wherever I go. I commute by public transport and most of the work on what I promptly dubbed "Project Elf Chain" could be done during my commute.
A single "flower" of my weave. The aspect ratio for these rings is pretty awesome.
The rings, when they are made, are not completely closed, nor are they completely open. They are made from a long spiral and sawed along one end, so the edges of each ring are offset by a bit. (Picture here)
This means that each ring must either be fully closed, or opened further, in order to work with them. And thus started my tedious task of closing all green rings, and opening all the gold rings. This is one of the things I can very easily do on the train, especially if I bring my travel case.
But it was far too much fun to make progress, and progress I did. By February 1st, 2010, I had made some 40 cm by four rows high.
The weave is technically Japanese 6-in-1 but since I have double the amount of gold rings I guess you could call it 12-in-1 as well. Japanese weaves have the rings at a 90 degree angle, while European weaves have them slanted over eachother. (Example of European 4-in-1)
12-in-1 is twice as much trouble as 6-in-1 would be. I wondered, at this point (mid-February 2010) if 6-in-1 wouldn't be just as nice. I made a short test-piece:
The 12-in-1 is much better in my opinion, since it is filled out more and less flimsy. But at least I knew before I had gone very far how this looked, and I was glad to know it. It made the work for 12-in-1 more meaningful.
Work continued apace and I tried making pictures each month.
March 2010: Just to show how flexible the sheet is. And how awesome the maille is.
I also focused on optimising the process. Connecing loose rings is an option, but it goes a wee bit faster if you've already got a chain. I made a pouch of some scraps of fabrics to store my chains in... but as you can see they kind of tangle.
April 1st, 2010: two pouches with thousands of rings ready to attach, and one sheet of 56 (green) rings wide and 37 and a half rows high.
At this point I'd like to point out that the 56 rings wide was not a vague made-up figure. When I started, I made a chain and connected both ends. I tried if I could get the chain around my upper torso like a t-shirt (over my head). It did. I folded the chain double on itself, thus making the first two rows of my sheet. Later I optimised the offset so the edges would fit together without trouble.
Basically, you can work on chainmail wherever you have a flat surface. Opening and closing rings can be done with a travel case, and attaching the chain can be done while en-route to work... Here is my setup for attaching chain to the sheet while on the train.
June 1st, 2010: I'm doing mostly prep work. Opening gold rings in the train to work.
The sheet is now 50 x 56 rings, and I've started work on the second sheet, which at this time is 12 rows high.
October 13, 2010: Second sheet is now some 50 rings high. I'm getting very close to actually having to think about the armscyes.
I'm not working on this Chainmail every day, and I take a big break of several weeks sometimes. By the time both sheets are 50x56 rings (just the green rings counted, of course) it turns out I'm afraid of the armscyes. I stop and wait for a few months.
April 1st, 2011
I've decided it's silly to be scared of armscyes. With the way Japanese 12-in-1 works, raglan sleeves should be do-able. I make a start, just skipping over a few rings and taking off one ring at each row. We go for a mini-break to a bungalow parc and I bring the chain along to work on.
It's now large enough to model on me. It nearly fits, but there's still a lot of work to be done. Around this time, the Project Elf Chain slowly gets merged to the "We're going to Drachenfest" idea.
April 30, 2011: Queensday update. The front sheet is recognisable (left) and I'm still working on the back piece. I've also nearly run out of rings and ordered an additional 6000 gold rings.
Since the anodising process has changed, these will be the last rings I can get that will look the same. The new anodised aluminium is very shiny and will not match what I've created so far.
May 25, 2011: I spend some time threading the pattern pieces together after I finish them. I've by this time bought the fabrics for my gambeson and put everything on the mannequin.
OMG! It's really a shirt!
This is also the first time I realise I might actually make it work.
It's been a race against the clock and it was and still is a race until I run out of rings. 44.000 gold rings is all I have and it's all I can get unless I find a different supplier and pray they have my ring size. Trust me: 44.000 gold rings is going to be a tight squeeze!
At first I wanted to add real raglan sleeves but by May I figure out I will not have enough gold rings for that. I settle for making it a sleeveless shirt, and if I have enough time I will add scalemail sleeves. I've worked with small scales for a leather armour before and it's just as much fun as regular chainmail.
The offset is perfect (I fixed that fairly early on). But before I can close up the sides I will need to fit it over my gambeson.
The shoulder fail!
I had wanted to make a triangle over the shoulders to attach front to back, but it turns out that this will not work. The triangle's side slopes will not be steep enough to reach the front raglan armscye.
So I do what any sensible craftsman does: Call in the helper troups.
twilightbanana advises me to make two triangles and join them at an angle. This is similar to the technique for European 4-in-1, but because 12-in-1 already has the angle built into the weave, it will be easier.Two triangles make a diamond-shape. And it fits nearly perfectly to the front and back armscye!
Now that that's attached, there's a bit of an overhang on the shoulder. These kinds of shapes cannot be planned for. My mannequin isn't quite the same size as me and as soon as I take off the shirt the shape will collapse. We thread through the rings to make the shape of the shoulders and I remove the overhang.
To make sure left armscye is the same as the right, I use an earring as a counting aid. I needed something that can be moved easily, and that I can hang onto the rings. Maybe a more simple model would have worked, but I can't wear earrings anyway, so that's OK.
And that's where I was at last night!
What still needs to be done:
- The front armscye needs some more shaping done, as part of my boob is exposed still. This I can do.
- The gold-coloured aluminium scales will come in at the beginning of July. I will make scale sleeveheads and work with a European 4-in-1 weave at the bottom of the sleeves so ease of movement is maintained. I have plenty of green rings left for the sleeves, and I'm no hurry. If needs be, I can do this after Drachenfest.
- Once the gambeson is done, I will wear the maille shirt over the gambeson to see if it fits or if it needs extra room. I'm quickly running out of rings, so I really hope I don't have to make it much bigger.
Stay tuned, for next time I will have finished the gambeson, and boy that is a story to tell as well.
Cross-posted to
dressdiaries
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-09 11:18 am (UTC)I especially like the shiny green rings showing between the golden ones.
And respect for keeping with this project. I know I wouldn't be able to.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-09 02:16 pm (UTC)This is exactly why I do what I do: other people have wayyy more stamina and inspiration. I supply the rings, they supply the pretty and everyone's happy.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-09 02:32 pm (UTC)A few days back I realised that when I put the shirt on the mannequin for the first time, that might have been the unconscious shift to "this might actually get done in time for Drachenfest". That was the point where suddenly the end was nigh. :-)
I'm pacing myself not to start on my next project before this one's done but it sure is tempting to start ordering rings again.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-09 05:45 pm (UTC)Chain m
Date: 2011-06-23 07:44 am (UTC)The shoulder looks awsome, does it fit OK?
love,
mamamamam
Re: Chain m
Date: 2011-06-23 08:00 am (UTC)I love that you commented! :)