Summer Holidays Chain Maille Pendant

Here's another project that I thought I would share with you this evening.  There are a lot of great tutorials, beading instructions and jewelry making techniques on the Fire Mountain Gems website.  Of course, the main objective is to sell product from their site and I'm sure it works a lot of the time....just not with me.  *smile"

I found the free instructions for this project from a link on their e-newsletter, something else to try to entice you to buy stuff from them.  They put a lot of effort into marketing, I'll give them that much.  I've just never found it to be cost effective to order from the US.  Besides, I'm very tactile by nature and like to touch & feel something before buying it.  I'm typically disappointed if I buy anything online.  It usually does not live up to my expectations.

This chain mail pendant is easy to make.  There are lots of diagrams to show you how to put it together.  And since I have a readily available source of rings, I thought I'd give it a shot.  I found that it would only 'hang' like in the photo when it was lying down.  As soon as I put any upward pressure on it, as when hanging it on a cord to wear, some of the lower rings flipped up.  Now, it could have been the type and size of rings I was using or the weight of the 'crystal' I used.

I'm sure that I'll go back and play with it again some day, try to get it right.  In the meantime, I thought that some of you might like to see how it turns out for you!  Look through some of the other tutorials on the Fire Mountain Gems website too.  Happy crafting!