pink! maille necklace finished, more halvah

Well, it has taken 5 days, but it is done! 16-1/2" of really pink chain. The pale pink shiny rings are The Ring Lord's new-process anodized aluminum, very nice.
Eventually I realized that the reason the darker, more matte rings were so difficult to work with is that they are the "enamelled" copper. The colored plastic coating is much more delicate than the anodized layer, and I had to throw out a BUNCH of rings, because one slip in the pliers and there was a tattered shiny spot. Do NOT like. Even though they come in a whole lot of luscious colors, working with them is not worth it.

The lobster-claw clasp is one of the powder-coat ones sold by TRL; it only sort of matches, but I think it's OK. It looks closer in real life than in the photo. I will get more in several colors. At 40¢ they may be cheaper than I can make a hook.

Also tonight I tried another batch of halvah, in hopes of taking it to CCHBA Monday night. I got the honey up to about 258°, maybe just to 260° as I turned off the fire. It got noticeably thicker. When it first got hot and foamy, it was very thin and watery as I stirred it, but at about 250° or so it started to feel thicker. Very dark. It got stiff  very quickly as I stirred the combined honey and tahini; I had to "pour" it up when still pretty hot. If it doesn't develop crystals and get fudgy, it is going to be the pull-your-fillings-out kind of candy.

Completely off-topic -- there is a wonderful new word out there - "teabonics" -- the non-standard dialect of English spoken by the Tea Party. See the comments to Juanita Jean's post.

daily challenge continues ...

It's been three days, and I have NOT made three things. I have, rather, been slowly plodding along on one thing, which is almost half done at this point. It's a pink chain in modified 'one hour less sleep' weave, shown here in two snaps from the Mac Photo Booth built-in camera. A classy macro camera it is not!

I keep meaning to keep a few one-inch pieces of full persian weave for templates to start new chains on. I keep losing them, or using them in finished chains. I keep spending HOURS getting persian (or one hour less sleep, which is persian on every other link) started.

So Tuesday night I started working on this, and eventually got it started, and got maybe an inch made. Last night I listened to several chapters of Agent of Change, and added another 3 or 4 inches. And this morning at the library craft group I got it up to over 6" long. Hope to get another three inches done tonight. Sigh. I did used to be faster at this, but I suppose I should be glad I can still do it at all. At least I do it better than handwriting.

Also I think that I may invest in some really good (read pricey) pliers that are aligned better, so the links slip out and destroy their anodized surface less often.

old familiar weaves and new ones

I decided it was time, as the new year began, to learn some new chain weaves. Almost everything I have done recently is persian, one hour less sleep, or byzantine, with a few forays into half-persian (snake chain), möbius flowers, simple 2-in-2 when I’m in a hurry, and of course european 4-in-1 for flat areas.









I started looking for weaves that fit the new aluminum rings I got from The Ring Lord. I tried elf-weave, but it was a mess. I thought I had gotten past the initial falling-apart stage, but it never seemed to develop a pattern, just looked like a heap of rings. Then I tried sweet pea.
The AR 4.1 rings I had (18-gauge swg 3/16” anodized aluminum) were said to be the perfect size for this. But I thought they were a tad too large. The inner rings seemed to have too much play, and not to line up well. So I tried with some of my copper 18-gauge awg 5/32” rings, which are a shade tighter, AR 4. They work. I have to make more rings, but I made a little section of 8 “peas,” and I think it will do.



Still looking for uses for my colorful rings, I looked up DNA chain. Once I got straight in my head how the little rings go on, that worked well. Though I believe my 1/8” green rings could afford to be smaller, 3/32” sized. You can do it with all the small rings closed, and all the large ones open. It’s kind of tedious, closing all those 1/8” 20-gauge rings. But after desultorily working on it for over a week, I have a 24” chain, plus two short bits for earrings.

I am going to make it a lariat, with a stone-weighted end passing through a sterling loop with a hook in it, to be fastened wherever the wearer wishes. I hoped to use one of my new amethyst discs as the stone, but the color just isn’t right, especially in sunlight. So I think it will be a construction of an aventurine zuni-type bear in a silver frame. Got to get the soldering-fu going.