My Maille - Decorations

Maille History

How to Make Maille

Pics of My Work

Patterns I've Invented

Decorations

Bottles

When I was growing up in Newark, we lived very close to my grandmother's house. Grandma had a small wicker-like item shaped like a wine bottle, with a large 'gate' on the bottom, and decorations all around it. It even had a rudimentary handle. The idea was that you could put a wine bottle in it and display the bottle in the 'wrapping' - perhaps carry it from place to place, keeping the wine cold when you hand was warm, or for picnics, or whatnot.

When I started looking at maille for purposes other than armor, I thought about that piece...and realized that I could use wine bottles as a canvas for my maille. From this, I learned about bottlewrapping with maille. My first bottle was done with steel rings, but I moved to aluminum soon after...and most recently, I've been using slightly smaller rings to provider a tighter effect on my work.

	The first bottle wrapping I ever made, as mentioned above. It uses both thestandard European 4-in-1 (in two different directions) as well as my own Staggered Cordoroy Row. As you can see, the maille narrows against the neck of the bottle - combine that with the rows of Cordoroy grasping around the bottom of the piece, and the bottle is entirely locked within the maille. If I wanted to put a handle on the metal here, it would hold it - even if the bottle were entirely full.
	This was my first attempt at bottle wrapping using colored rings. The 'stalactite' maille is purple with red trim, and the 'stalagmite' maille is blue with green trim. They meet at the points with larger, silver rings, and small sections of Byzantine wrap around the neck. This wrapping, unlike the one above, is made in such a way where the main body of it could be taken off of this bottle and placed on another bottle - example, a full one - of similar size. All in all, I'm pretty proud of it.
	For quite a while, I was a fan of the triangular, two-pieces-joining, stalactite-stalagmite maille for my bottles. For one, it allowed me to have broad, blank areas of bottle, allowing the glass to provide its own contrast to the maille..
	Also, as illustrated in shots like this, those sections could be used to show the labels of the bottles, were they left on, and the bottles full. As you can see, this wrapping is entirely removable.
	I decided to mix it up just a little bit on this one. I used a reverse of the color patterns in the one above here (red body with purple edging, green body with blue edging), but I decided to OFFSET the points against each other. It actually provides a nice chevon effect.
	Again, this wrap can be removed from the bottle very easily. A label wouldn't be viewed through this pattern very easily, but the trimmed color on the points focus on the triangular pattern made.
	It was around this time that I decided to try using a smaller ring size for bottle wrappings. You see, the smaller the ring being used, the more the maille will look like an actual flexible sheet rather than a collection of rings. This is around the time that I started using 3/16" rings for my wrappings. I've stayed with the silver/gold colors rather than branch into more diverse colors, letting the patterns speak more to the art than the various color palettes would.
	Also, by using smaller rings, I was able to do more on each bottle with the space that I was provided. For example, these two pictures show that this bottle had FOUR levels of triangles, as opposed to those before that only had two. This wrapping can easily be taken off the bottle, but it will not fall off on its own, thanks to its wrapping around the neck like this.
	After seeing what I could do with wine bottles, my brother commissioned me to make him a piece using his favorite brand of wine, La Crema. The finished product looked gorgeous; a small window features the brand label clearly, while graceful lines of European 4-in-1 scale up the front and back, joined by a slim band of Half Persian 3-in-1. Too bad he never got it, though; my mother, thoroughly in love with the work, has commandeered it for herself. Sorry, J....
	One day, deciding that I had done enough with the 'standard' European maille on my bottles, I decided to experiment. I quickly made a piece of Japanese 12-in-1 and thought that it would look lovely here. Granted, there's still pieces of European 4-in-1, but those are just the line, narrow, 3-ring-wide strips running vertically and the small horizontal band. Byzantine sections join them to the Japanese pattern. I thought it was a nice change-up from the norm.
	So I kept changing up from the norm. Spiral doesn't work fantastically well with bottles; it's a pattern that it universally round, so it does not 'lay' against the glass well. However, after creating two lines of Half Persian 3-in-1, I found an excellent medium to anchor spirals to. By breaking up the spiral in the middle with a single larger ring, I was able to spiral over smaller, flatter surfaces while still enhancing the twists.
	Here's a close-up of how the spirals attach to the Persian pattern. It expands hugely if you click on the picture. The Spiral 4-in-1 pattern has a tendancy to resemble DNA - especially here - but it still looks fantastic, if I do say so myself.
	Here's a shot of the bottom of the bottle (pic-click blows up to huge size), showing how it locks into place. While the wrapping could be slid off, this is the first bottle that I have made that has a bottom lock without a top lock.
	This was another bottle that I decided to get a little wild on. Rather than use small rings in a European 4-in-1 pattern, I used BIG rings in a European 6-in-1 pattern instead. Using that as an attachment base, I made a few chains of Spiral 4-in-1 to cascade around it. There's a great swishy effect when you spin it slightly to and fro. This wrapping would be easily removable and might even fit SOME other bottle sizes.

Dreamcatchers

Chain Maille can be displayed in various ways. Some weaves work best as single chains, some work well as large sheets, some can be free-standing structures. Other weaves, though, work as NETS. Often, this is a pattern that works as a single chain, but can be branched into a series of chains - or, by definition, a net.

So - one day, I was trying to figure out what I could make with the net pattern I just invented, the Staggered Cordoroy Web. I must have seen a picture or a lampshade or something, because I thought of making a dreamcatcher, and the rest is history.

	The first dreamcatcher I ever made. Experimenting with the Staggered Cordoroy Web, I decided to suspend it in a ring, kinda like needlepoint. Envisioning that lead to the thought of the dreamcatcher. At the time, I didn't think to alter the net to fit the ring, but the other way around, so the ring isn't a perfect circle anymore. But it was my first, so I was learning....
	I didn't make alot of dreamcatchers with steel rings - the weight of the metal can deform the ring it's suspended in - but I didn't use this particular pattern alot, either, so I'd say it worked out. This pattern is called the Captive Orbital Hex Cage. I've used this pattern twice in total: each time for one of my grandmothers. I think they liked it.
	None of my other dreamcatchers really used steel rings; here's an example of a dreamcatcher using aluminum rings. This wasn't a dedicated 'weave' example, just messing around with Captured Byzantine and freeforming maille in the center, but I really liked this one. I ended up giving it to the woman who did my maille tattoo, "Shanghai" Kate Hellenbrand.
	Japanese 12-in-2 is a very stable pattern on its own, so it didn't need alot of help getting it to stay properly supported in this simple dreamcatcher. It's not often that I'll use a Japanese pattern in a dreamcatcher, though, as it's a sheet rather than a net or web.
	This is the largest 'dreamcatcher' I've made to date. Granted, it doesn't have the 'hangers' on the bottom that many of my dreamcatchers did (I don't really use them anymore), but it's a web held in a big ring. Close enough for me. This project used 2400 1/4" rings held in a full Byzantine Web. It look a long time to complete - but it's hanging from the front door of my mother's house, and it still looks fantastic.
	I made this one when I was first learning Spiral 4-in-1. The problem with the Spiral pattern is that if one end is not tied off or secured, the whole thing will spin free and unravel. Held securely on both ends, it holds the twist. As you can see, there are several sections of it in this simple dreamcatcher. As my first piece with spiral, I gave it to my uncle as a Christmas present.
	Using a Captive section in the center of the hoop, I decided to go with a patriotic theme with this dreamcatcher. Sections of European 4-in-1 and Byzantine hold the Captive in place.
	Byzantine Web works very well in dreamcatchers. A natural hex pattern, it's easy to build, expand, and tighten down. It fills a space without being too blocky. And as you can see, the appropriate use of colors can help presentation a great deal. Obviously, I use Byzantine Web more than any other pattern in my dreamcatchers.
	Yep, more Byzantine. I started this dreamcatcher looking to put a 3x3 square in the center...but the crosspieces for the center squares were loose. I took them out...and found that it also made a nice pattern that way! Good support, nice colors, good contrast - my grandmother still has this dreamcatcher in her window. I've duplicated the pattern a few times for family and friends.
	Though the center of this pattern IS heavy with Byzantine, I wouldn't call it a Byzantine WEB per se. It uses CLUSTERS of Byzantine to establish the Hex in the middle, with a space wide enough to set a small piece of Spiral 4-in-1. One of the last dreamcatchers I had made that used the hangers on thte bottom.
	All of the dreamcatchers so far were large - 9" hoops are larger. Most recently, I've been making dreamcatchers in 3" hoops, with 1/8" rings; tiny dreamcatchers that look like christmas ornaments, small enough to hang from rear view mirrors. It's subtle, but there are three shades of purple in the 1/4" rings in this dreamcatcher. I gave it to my friend Kelly.
	Examples of other color patterns in the mini dreamcatchers. Altogether, they use 12 1/4" rings, so it's fairly straightforward to make a nice, simple pattern that doesn't overpower the Byzantine section in the middle.

Basket

While plumbing the depths of the Maille Artisans International League (M.A.I.L.) website one day, I found an interesting pattern called Staggered Captive Inverted Round Sheet. It was thick, solid. It stood upright on its own. The first section I made of it seemed like a big ring...so I decided to make another, and yet another, and use them as the walls of a basket.

	With captive rings, you don't have alot of the flexibility that you normally would, which is exactly what the basket needed. There aren't alot of ring sizes where you can pull off 3 captive rings inside of each section
	Unfortunately, at this time, I was still using homemade steel rings, so the basket weighed ALOT. I often wonder if I should try it again using the aluminum rings that I've been using for a while now, but that won't help the people that inherited the steel baskets.
	Once I had finished the sides of the basket, I needed to fill in the bottom. I used a contracting European 4-in-1 pattern that actually worked out pretty well once I got the center tight enough. Attach the Box Chain handle, and the basket is done! My grandma once said that it was the toughest Easter Basket she had ever seen.