Coloured Chain Maille Jewellery

Today’s post is about making coloured chain maille jewellery using contrasting or complementary colours of jump rings, and I also try some new chain maille designs.

I have posted before about my passion for making chain maille jewellery and how I have been trying many different basic chain designs to see which I like the most and then trying some designs that incorporate beads to give different looks. This post expands on that by using contrasting or complementary colours of jump rings in some new chain maille designs.

When I first saw chain maille jewellery kitsets that used coloured jumprings I instantly thought of those bracelets that children make using rubber bands and was completely put off them. Since then I have seen some spectacular and very classy pieces of jewellery that tastefully use different colours: some with contrasting colours and others with a range of complementary colours. (I’ve also seen some very cheap and nasty looking pieces that remind me to be careful about my choices.)

One of the designs I tried is called Japanese 12-in-2 and I combined gold and copper rings to make a subtly contrasting bracelet that looks as though it is made up of a chain of flowers.

Another variation of this design is called Japanese Lace: the circle isn’t completed as above but two rows of rings are joined together in a linear fashion. Determined to break out of my colour comfort zone, I used henna and silver rings (but I’m not sure that I like it).

I was very happy with the Mermaid’s Tail Box Chain design that I made earlier that combines different blue colours very effectively.

And I also used a turquoise and silver combination in the Pacific Opal Inspiral design that I shared in my chain maille jewellery with beads post.

 

I purchased my supplies from the wonderfully named Weave Got Maille. I was delighted to see a YouTube video recently in a series called World’s Greatest that show-cases Weave Got Maille: not only can they customise anything you want for anything from suits of armour, reenactment, clothing, jewellery and even decor; but they have developed systems that support the environment and the community. They have their own aluminum anodizing plant that uses only organic dyes, and their bi-product is aluminum sulfate, which is used by gardeners and farmers to adjust the pH in soil. Aluminum sulfate is also used in wastewater treatment. They recycle all of their scrap metal in-house by melting it down and forming it into wire and other usable products. So I feel good about supporting their business.