Pssst! I also have a VIDEO TUTORIAL of this piece!
I taught a class for this pendant this past weekend, as my final class in VA! The ladies were all so sweet and fantastic, joking that they would miss me so much they’d have to road trip out to wherever we land in the Denver area so they could keep taking my classes! It was a great class, but very bittersweet. I’m going to miss teaching at Star’s Beads!

This can be worn on a chain as a pendant, or you can make two, attach earwires, and wear them as earrings! I also have a matching bracelet that I also sell a kit for. I’m hoping to post a bracelet tutorial as well, but it will probably not be for a while. One can use this tutorial and easily adapt it for the bracelet if wished.

If anything is unclear or needs more direction, please let me know so I can improve the tutorial! If you make something, I’d love to hear your feedback and pictures!
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I love making chainmaille jewelry, and I love teaching it as well. Full caveat, I sell my own jump rings and kits, so I offer this free chainmaille tutorial to be able to point my customers and students to use as a reference. More tutorials will be forthcoming as my time allows.
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Now that I have had a few days to reflect on all of this, and read through other’s comments on copyright in chainmaille, I thought I’d outline my thoughts on the matter.

This has raised interesting and valid copyright questions. If a weave is freely available to all, because it’s a “construction technique”… then at what point does one’s designs become copyrightable?

I think a few of the ones Sara copyrighted qualifies, but not all. One of the copyrighted designs is just a length of the Stepping Stones (SS) weave hanging from a chain. If she states that the SS weave itself is not enforced and belongs to the community, then how could that that particular piece be copyrighted/enforced, if there are no changes made to it other than hanging it from a chain? (I am in no way trying to state that she is attempting to do so, I’m using this recent situation to discuss the copyright issues at hand.)

But I mean really, when we are all using the same weaves as our starting point, at what point after that does ones pieces become copyrightable?
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Since posting about my copyright infringement saga, a number of people have come to my defense, and the entire internet drama has really reached a clamor and come to a head. I want to repost a few things here for the record.

I really don’t want to get into the background of what’s been happening before and after I published my previous post in the mailling community (and I recognize there’s lots of other places other than the maille artisans site) but there is an entire thread on weave restrictions going on here, on the Maille Artisans site, which you can read if you like. I do want to point out a few things in this situation, and in so doing, I’ll just repost a post I made to that thread:
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I find myself in the very interesting position of being accused of copyright infringement.

Specifically, these pieces:

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Ahh, hello blog!

It’s been busy around Casa de Panders. Monday was Columbus day, and I had it off… but no one else did. It was quite nice to lounge around the house doing nothing all day! I debated on what I would do, but with my car at the shop (it needed a new radiator, sniff) I was stuck at home and ended up cutting rings and chain mailling all day.

Here’s what I made:

Celtic Visions in copper

Jens Pind in 14 gauge (ie: HUGE) sterling silver

And here’s another Jens Pind, in 18 gauge sterling that I made last week. It’s listed in the shop now.

So, it was a pleasant enough day – unfortunately, I think I overdid it and the joints in my right forefinger and thumb are kind of aching – this is really kind of pissing me off, as I just bought new pliers that I really quite liked. I hope it wasn’t the pliers that did it.

Oh, and here’s one more picture: Any guesses as to who Jocelyn is going to be for Halloween? Someone from one of my FAVORITEST movies!

-amy

I never did follow up and post how my soldering class went. It went awesome!

Here is a photo I took with my phone halfway through the class. The bracelet is only half done, I just draped it over my wrist.

Here are is a picture I took after I got home. I plopped everything I came home with (finished and unfinished alike) into my light box and took some shots with the Canon 30D.

You can see 2 square links that have not been soldered, one that was soldered, but I didn’t need, a few little bitty clasps I made, and some balled headpins — which I strung a pretty lucite bead on to show how I plan on using them. And then of course, the bracelet I finished in class.

As you can see, when you put the torch to silver, it oxidizes the metal. The oxidation is the black and goldish colors you see in the torched pieces. In order to remove the oxidation, when you’re finished, you place it in the “pickle” a solution that removes a very fine layer of metal, including the oxidation. The finished bracelet went into the pickle at the end of class, thus it’s nice and shiny. It had not yet been tumbled, so the silver is still a kind of matte finish rather than a shiny finish. I have a tumbler at home, so I didn’t worry about tumbling it in class.

And here is my finished bracelet.

When I got home, I added (unsoldered) chainmaille pieces inside each of the square (soldered) links. I absolutely adore it – The organic asymmetrical-ness of the squares makes it looks kind of retro to me. Very mod. I am going to make another one with a little less hammering of the squares…. once I can find a square mandrel to use!! I’ve just been keeping my eyes peeled for anything but I may have to ramp up efforts, head to a hardware store and actually actively look for something.

My pyromaniac sale is over, and I sold 2 items, which in my book, is a SUCCESS! I received my torch and soldering supplies, and let me tell you – it is FUN! I’m hoping to finish some earrings this weekend to list.

Also, I may be teaching a chainmaille class August 1st! I am kind of excited! If you are in the northern VA area and are interested, let me know and I’ll keep you up to date! It will be a byzantine class, and participants will be able to finish this bracelet in class:

-amy

My silversmithing class was awesome. I loved it. I instantly came home and ordered a torch and all the supplies I needed to do my own soldering at home. Stuff called pickle and flux and also? Charcoal. Cool huh!

It’d be nice though if I had some SALES from my ETSY shop to offset my latest order… so….

Enter “PYROMANIAC” in the comments when you buy something from my shop, and I’ll refund you 20%! that’s right, a bonefied SALE! I haven’t decided how long I’ll run the sale, but probably until the weekend if not through the weekend.

Here are 2 new items I just listed. The bracelet is relisted from when it sold last month (finally made another one) and the earrings are my new absolute favorite pair ever. Hard to imagine that anything would bump the Posies from that slot, but these have done it!

Next up, I’ll give a little more detail on my soldering class, and show some pictures.

-amy loves to play with FIRE!!