Making Chain Maille Pendants

I haven’t made any chain maille jewellery for a while but whilst in lockdown I’ve been inspired to use some of the supplies I had already and try something a bit different. I’ve previously explored making various necklaces and bracelets using different chain maille weaves, sometimes incorporating different colours and sometime including beads as well. This time I decided to try making chain maille pendants using some of the different weaves that I had used previously: Japanese 12-in-2 and Helm’s Weave.

Japanese 12-in-2 or Japanese Lace

I previously tried this design in making a coloured ‘chain of flowers’ bracelet. A single ‘flower’ could be used as a cute pendant by itself or you can expand it out further to form a different shape such as this ‘diamond’-shaped pendant.

Another variation that I tried is a variant often referred to as a Shenandoah design where larger rings are combined with the smaller rings both linking them and creating a decorative ‘S’ shape around them.

Parallel or Helm’s Weave

I made a Helm’s Cuff Bracelet for an earlier post and was quite intrigued to see how it could be used to make a substantial elegant pendant that would suit evening-wear.

It follows the same linear weave as is used for the cuff but you create a series of chains that are one repeat bigger than the previous one and then link them together to form a triangular shape, and attach chain at the top corners to create your necklace.