My Wonderful Discovery of Chainmaille

I found it quite ironic that Shealynn was the first to comment on my last post, as she is how I discovered chainmaille jewelry. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with it.

I first found Shealynn's blog sometime this past summer and was completely captivated by her chainmaille jewelry. So that's when I began my research and found out about UnkamenGifts, and also found a few useful online tutorials. Though, I must say, there really aren't that many websites about chainmaille jewelry out there (most of the hits I got were for full body chainmaille armor). My first project was a short chain of the helm weave.

After that I didn't really make that much because I didn't have any cool colored jump rings. But, for my birthday I received a sample package of jump rings from UnkamenSupplies. That's when I really began playing around with it. Unfortunately you can't really make anything but earrings and necklace pendants from the sample pack, so that's what I've been making a lot of.

For Christmas got a few different colors and sizes of jump rings and I've actually been able to make more complete things (though I haven't yet made anything complete, just played around a bit). You probably noticed the green and gold bracelet in my header, made entirely of jump rings. It's actually not mine. My confirmation sponsor (or my fairy-godmother) had ordered a kit for herself from Unkamen but she wasn't able to figure it out, so she commissioned me to make it for her. I took one look at the picture and said "I can make that! I don't even need the instructions!" And so I did.

That's pretty much all there is to it. A huge thanks to Shealynn for opening up my doors to the world of chainmaille jewelry! :D