Pieces of eight

Give chain maille a unique twist with Dorothy Wood's stunning dagger bead set!

Dorothy Wood, MJ Designer

Chain maille is an extremely popular jewellery technique and this set takes the technique a little further, using figure of eight links joined together with jump rings. Spikey dagger beads give the set a designer edge!

Necklace

1. Wind 0.8mm silver wire around a 5mm knitting needle at least 17 times to make a closely packed spring. Trim and slide the spring off the needle, then pull out slightly to separate the rings so that you can get the tips of the wire cutters in between. Snip through the first straight coil, then miss a coil and snip through the next one so that the two cut ends are level. Using snipe-nose pliers, open out the rings from the edge opposite the cut ends and bend flat to create a figure of eight. Repeat to make eight small figure of eight links.
2. Lay each figure of eight one at a time on a metal block and hammer gently until the wire has flattened evenly all over. Trim the ends so that they touch the flattened wire in the middle, to form the '8' shape. Make eight medium links in the same way by winding 1mm wire around a 6mm knitting needle, hammering flat and trimming the ends as before. Finally, make eight large links by winding 1.2mm wire around a 7.5mm knitting needle at least nine times, then hammer and trim.
3. Using two pairs of snipe-nosed or bent-nosed pliers, open eight 5mm, eight 6.8mm and nine 8.3mm bronze jump rings. Loop a small jump ring through a small figure of eight from the top and close with pliers. The figure of eight can be opened and closed by turning the loops at either end in opposite directions, just like a jump ring.
4. Loop another small jump ring from the bottom through the same figure of eight. Insert another small figure of eight onto the open jump ring and close with pliers. The bronze jump rings should all lie in the same direction and the figure of eights in the opposite direction. Continue to join four small jump rings and four figure of eight links. Next add four medium rings and links, then nine large rings with eight large links. Work the other side finishing with four medium rings and links, and four small rings and links. Attach a 15cm length of bronze chain to each end.
5. Trim the heads off copper head pins or use 0.7mm wire. Feed the head pin through the hole in a pepper dagger and bend up to leave at least 1cm on one end and the other end longer. Wrap the longer end around several times to create a wrapped loop and trim. Next, trim the shorter tail to 7mm and make a plain loop with round-nosed pliers. Create similar combination loops for another eight pepper daggers, 11 acrylic chips and eight round tropicals beads.
6. Open the plain loop ends and attach the pepper daggers at regular intervals along the bottom edge of the necklace base up to the smallest figure of eight motifs on each side. Add the other turquoise or aquamarine beads to create a balanced effect. Add extra copper beads and silver bells to create an eclectic feel. To complete, attach a jump ring to both ends and a trigger clasp.