Perri Nelson

One of the cool things about European 4 in 1 chain mail is how it changes shape depending upon which direction you pull at it from. A piece hanging in its “natural” direction is typically much narrower across the same rings than when it’s turned 90° on its side.

This piece is 45 inches long laid out this way. If I stretch it lengthwise it’s big enough to wrap around two of me. There are 2,879 links in this chain. Every one of them formed and joined by hand.

I’ve got a long way to go, but about six to eight more pieces the same size will probably be enough to make everything below the sleeves for the shirt I’m working on.

The fun continues.

More progress. This piece is now about 16 inches by 5 inches

The small coil of wire on the left is ready to be cut into rings. On the right are several small “fivelet” units ready to be added to complete the row, and several rings ready to join them with.

So far I’ve put about 8 hours into the project.

After my wire arrived and I finished working for the day, I got started “bending wire”. I made about four coils, cut them into rings and started weaving chain. This is the result of last night’s efforts.

The pliers are there to give scale to the picture. If you look at the ends you’ll notice that I ground them down so that they provide a better surface to grip the rings. I use this pair to open and close all the rings I make when I’m making the chain.

I probably won’t make as much progress tonight. I’ve got some other things to do first, for our church’s Operation Christmas Child collection week.

I’ll probably just cut a few thousand rings and put them in containers.