j_betts

Have you thought of a belt of between them? It would give you shaping to the dress, and give you a way to hang the weight of the skirt off of your hips instead of your shoulders.

I'd love to know the ring sizes for tiny scale flowers. Anyone willing to say or have the list for sale?

What is it filled with? When I made one I used cloth and fiber fill. The rings gave it plenty of heft.

The instructions say you need to add an extra set of holes, but doesn't say why. Noise will not work for my project. I will pick up a punch and add the holes. Thank you for the tip about the template. Things like that are very helpful.

I'm looking to stitch a bunch of shield scales onto a jean jacket. I've read the instructions in the tutorial sections and it says I need to put 2 extra holes in the scales to stop them from flopping around. I'm looking to see if I really need to add a second set of holes to the scales. I have access to a punch, but any work I can avoid is time I can use for other parts of the project.

Dishwasher detergent is abrasive. That is how it gets all the stuck on bits of food off. That isn't an issue with the stuff you use in the washing machine.

I've seen them priced for about $10 for 1,000 tabs. There are several places selling them online. Take a look and see where you want to be in the price spectrum.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Take a picture of what you have and we will be much more able to help you.

I would just use rings for the crotch of the piece. Just have the rings be between your legs and nobody will see them. That way you don't need to worry about the bulk of the scales between your legs. You also won't have problem of changing the direction of the scales from the front to the back.

I've seen a lot of conversations on Facebook about this. Lots of mailers have vented about having their work compared to loom bands. I personally, don't care about it if the person doesn't insinuate that my work is worthless due to the connection.

Doing a quick image search shows that the basic idea is to make a sheet of scales the length you want, and taper it. Turn the sheet into a tube by connecting the two edges together. Make belt loops from chains and attach them to the inside of the scales. To work out how many scales build one out of paper to work out what size you want. Then measure the paper to find out your square footage. You need 300 large scales, or 1,000 small scales per foot. I was also wrong about being able to do a single row of colored scales. http://dracoloricatus.deviantart.com/art/Aluminum-dragon-tail-dramatic-131346397?q=gallery%3Adracoloricatus%2F11806643&qo=188 The link shows an example of how to do it. The trick is that the colored scales are every other row of scales.

I know people in this group have done this before, so perhaps one of them will wander in to help. For you to have a straight spine you will need to have it multiple scales wide. It will need to be 2 then 1 or 3 then 2, or however wide you want it. Single scale going straight won't work at all.

The basic weave is Japanese 4in1 that is overlapped. If you look at the round scale page there is a youtube video showing how to do the overlapping. Here is the link http://youtu.be/-lcF323sgCU

Practice, Practice, Practice. No really, you just close them and see what happens. Look at what you got and learn what to do better next time. I push in a bit to close the gap made by the saw, and work to make the joint as unnoticeable as possible. I then run my fingers over the piece to find rings I need to touch up the closure on.

Here is a link for info about 304 stainless. http://www.alloywire.com/alloy_stainless_steel_304.html It includes the requirements to make it spring temper.

I'm going to ask a dumb question, but how are you opening your rings? Are you turning them into a C or are you opening them into a helix? Making them into a C can cause rings to warp and not close properly. I find that few people actually do a C opening, but I thought I would make sure.

I've used Armor All type chemicals to great effect. Spray the stuff on, then rinse it off using as hot of water as you can stand, then dry it off. This will make the rings shinier, and should make them last longer.

You can also make magnetic "springs" by gluing magnets to the insides of the handles. The force of the magnets repelling themselves opens the pliers for you. There has been a lot of talk about this subject on this forum. A quick search will net you a better explanation of what I'm talking about.

In the US the law about defacing currency covers trying to make the money look like a different value of cash. So drawing a zero on a one dollar bill to make it a ten is illegal. Smashing pennies flat into keepsakes is perfectly legal though. As long as you aren't turning the pennies into dimes you should be safe of the law.

You could just make four corners using this tutorial http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.php?key=698 Doing that you would make bending unnecessary, and you could use 2 ring captures in all the cages.

There are a lot of videos of people testing chainmail on youtube. You might be able to spend an hour or two surfing there and save you the time and money of testing it yourself.

Have you ever done a triangle in e 4in1? You can do the same thing with DS since it is basically E4in1 in 2 ring sizes with an orbital ring over the smaller ring. When I make bias mail I start with a piece of standard, and subtract rings to make it bias. I then start rows from the middle of the band and work to the edges to see where I need to leave out rings.

For the elfweave bracelet they are all 18g 3/16" rings. This size of ring also makes very nice HP 3in1 and byzantine with a double connector ring.

You can try 18 ga. 3/16 rings to make elfweave. It looks like this http://www.theringlord.org/forum/index.php?/gallery/image/6231-elfweavetest/

Maille Artisans International League is very useful for this sort of information. http://www.mailleartisans.org/weaves/weavedisplay.php?key=11 If you mouse over the AR listings it will show you the sizes that work. There is a setting to change it between metric and SI units, but I don't know where it is.