Chain Maille Cuff Bracelets

My latest foray into jewellery making has been to make chain maille cuff bracelets using a couple of different more advanced designs: European 4-in-1 and Helm Cuff. These bracelets are both more of a statement piece of jewellery and I’m very pleased with the results.

European 4-in-1 Design

I followed the design for this in a book called Basic & Advanced Chain Maille that I purchased from Weave Got Maille along with the 3.5mm internal diameter 18 gauge wire jump rings that were required. I’ve posted previously about how it cost only $8 for postage and my parcel arrived from the US in 8 days.

I decided to go with simple gold enameled copper rings and 5 rows of chain in the first instance and bought a beautiful flower-shaped clasp from Trade Me to finish the piece off.

I have seen the same design made with lots more rows to make a much broader cuff; in gold, silver and copper finishes; and using different colour rings to create bands of colour vertically, horizontally and diagonally. I may try some of these later, but for the moment I am very happy with my classic, elegantly simple gold cuff.

 

Helm Cuff Design

I bought a PDF tutorial for making this design from Weave Got Maille and then bought my rings separately, but you can also buy a kit from them to make a silver helm cuff bracelet. This design is more intricate than the previous design but it is essentially 3 chains joined together, so once you have worked out how to do the basic unit (which involves using a larger ring to go right around two smaller ones and then locked in place between 2 larger rings) it is relatively easy to complete the piece. This version has 3 chains of the basic design joined together with double rings and finished with a 3 or 5 ring clasp.