Now that you’ve had a week to practice stringing together your own jump rings, here’s a good second stage chain link to practice with. It’s easier to make than it looks, and is a really great rope chain for bracelets, dramatic necklaces, or even key chains. My artesano friends used to call it the Ruta Inka, but it’s more commonly known as the Byzantine chain maille weave.

You Need

*Round nose pliers

*Flat nose pliers

*Jump rings from last week’s instructional

*Hook made from bit of wire or a paperclip 

How To

1) Take two jump rings together and then add four more rings together perpendicular to the original pair. Close all rings.

2) Holding one pair of rings together with your fingers, let one of each of the other rings hang over, one on each side, like wings. The middle pair of rings will still be together above the pair between your fingers.

3) Take the hook and gently separate the middle two rings. Then hook your hook onto where the two “wing” rings touch in the middle, letting the two middle rings hang over on either side. Your hook will now be holding together the two previous “wing” rings.

4) Replace hook with two more connecting rings and advance the whole operation up one set of links. Basically the chain will look as if you are attaching two separate pairs of rings with a set of four “woven” links.

5) Repeat until chain is desired length.

6) After you get the hang of it, you can experiment with different colors, metals, or ring size. A tri-color weave highlights the pattern of the weave while smaller rings increase its density (and difficulty!).

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