crazymokes » Chainmaille Tutorial: Shenandoah Pendant

Apr 04 2011

Chainmaille Tutorial: Shenandoah Pendant

Published by amy at 6:14 am under amy's head,jewelry

Pssst! I also have a VIDEO TUTORIAL of this piece!
I taught a class for this pendant this past weekend, as my final class in VA! The ladies were all so sweet and fantastic, joking that they would miss me so much they’d have to road trip out to wherever we land in the Denver area so they could keep taking my classes! It was a great class, but very bittersweet. I’m going to miss teaching at Star’s Beads!

This can be worn on a chain as a pendant, or you can make two, attach earwires, and wear them as earrings! I also have a matching bracelet that I also sell a kit for. I’m hoping to post a bracelet tutorial as well, but it will probably not be for a while. One can use this tutorial and easily adapt it for the bracelet if wished.

If anything is unclear or needs more direction, please let me know so I can improve the tutorial! If you make something, I’d love to hear your feedback and pictures!

Shenandoah Pendant/Earrings This Pendant uses 4 different sizes of jump rings (double ring counts if making earrings): 14g 10mm – 1 ring 14g 6.0mm – 1 ring 18g 4.0mm – 23 rings 20g 2.75mm – 46 rings I sell a kit for the Shenandoah pendant, Shenandoah earrings and Shenandoah bracelet at http://www.rainestudios-supplies.com. 8/18/2011: I have revamped the ring sizes and found some better fitting rings (I’ve updated this tutorial with the new sizes, never fear!), which also means I have kits available in silver fill, copper and NuGold brass (I could only do kits in sterling silver before). I have left some of my notes for how to get a ring into a tight fit, but in general, with the updated rings, they are no longer super tight and difficult to fit together. Feel free to post comments, questions, observations on this blog post, or you can email me at amy at raine dot net. Want to see something up close? Click the photo for a bigger version.
1. Close sixteen 20g 2.75mm rings.
2. Open a 14g 10mm ring and add all sixteen closed 20g 2.75mm rings to it, and then close.
3. Open a 18g 4.0mm ring, and attach it to two of the 20g 2.75mm rings that are dangling on the large 14g 10mm ring and then close.
Open another 18g 4.0mm ring, and weave it through the same two 20g 2.75mm rings that the first 18g ring went through, and then close. This is called “doubling” — instead of one 18g ring, now there are two rings woven through the exact same place.
4. Open a 20g 2.75mm ring, and weave it through both 18g 4.0mm rings, and close. Then double it with another 20g 2.75mm ring. Use a magnifier if needed to get make sure these tiny rings are closed properly (and that you don’t go blind!)
5. Open a 18g 4.0mm ring. Weave it through the two 20g 2.75mm rings you just added, and also through two adjacent 20g 2.75mm rings hanging on the large 14g ring. Close.
Now we need to double the 18g ring we just added, ~~but it is a very tight fit~~. It’s no longer a tight fit! I’ll leave these notes in however, in case you’d like some tips on weaving tight fitting rings: We will go through the proper holding and weaving of this ring very carefully. Hold the large ring with the 18g rings facing you, and the single 18g ring towards your hand, so you can grab it with your forefinger. You can see the small opening in the small rings where the next 18g ring will go.
Now we open a 18g ring. Hold this ring with a LOT of the ring in contact with the pliers, which will enable us to hold it very firmly with a good hard grip, without marring the ring with marks. We want the end of the ring pointing toward us. We are going to weave from behind and come out the front. I’ve used a blue sharpie on the ring to enable a better view in the photos.
We hold the big 14g ring firm against our thumb with our middle finger, and use our forefinger to press on the single 18g ring we are doubling. We want to press it downward, in order to open up as much space as possible to slip the new ring through the 20g 2.75mm rings. It may take a few tries to weave the ring through this narrow opening. Try rocking the ring forward and backward if it won’t come through.
Now that we’ve gotten the ring through, we need to pull the ring through a bit more and go through the other 2 small 20g 2.75mm rings with the opposite side of the jump ring, then close securely to complete our doubled 18g 4.0mm ring.
6. Add 2 small 20g 2.75mm rings to your newest doubled 18g 4.0mm rings, as in step 4.
7. Next, we continue to repeat steps 5 and 6, until we havea total of eight doubled 18g 4.0mm rings going around our large 14g ring, and there are no additional 20g rings dangling on the large 14g ring. The last doubled 18g rings will have two 20g 2.75mm rings dangling off the end, and the first of the 18g doubled rings will not.
8. Now we add and close two 20g 2.75mm rings to EACH of the last doubled 18g rings. Add another two 20g 2.75mm rings to the 2nd to last 18g doubled rings as well.
9. Pre-close six more 20g 2.75mm ring.
10. Open the 14g 6.0mm ring, and add the six pre-closed 20g 2.75mm rings. (But don’t close it yet!)
11. Weave the open 14g ring through the four 20g 2.75mm rings on the last two doubled 18g 4.0 rings, and then close.
12. Next repeat steps 5 & 6 three times, to bring the swirl of the Shenandoah "S"up and around the 14g 6.0mm ring and complete the pendant. Use a 18g 4.0mm ring as a bail for your chain, and wear as a pendant, or make two, attach earwires, and you have earrings! Enjoy!