Category Archives: Jewelry

Chains! Part 2

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So last time we talked a little about basic chains. And this time we need to talk about how the links are made and cut, and what we call the chain patterns.

The process for making plain round links is a simple one. Just take a wooden dowel that is the size of the inside of the links that you want to make and wrap the wire that you plan to use around the dowel. This diagram shows the basic process. The wire in the diagram is not packed as tightly as I would normally wind it, so that you can see the separate winds. Your goal is to lay the wire completely up against the previous piece of wire as you wind it. This will give you a nice tight coil with uniform proto-links. I call them proto-links right now because they haven’t grown up to be links yet. Each wrap of the wire will become a link.

sawing links

You will need a jewelers saw to cut the links properly. A jeweler’s saw basically looks like a coping saw, but it has blades with very fine teeth that will make a clean, smooth cut on your wire. I always buy my saw blades in packs of 1 dozen, because you will break blades, especially when you are learning to cut links.

And now a trick or two. Before you try to cut the coil of wire into links, wrap it with masking tape or painters’ tape. It helps to keep the coil from wobbling around as much and it helps keep the links from stretching as they are cut off of the coil. It also dramatically reduces the number of saw blades that you are likely to break.

When you are ready to saw the links, just slide the coil to the end of the dowel and cut away. Don’t worry if the saw blade cuts into the end of the dowel a little. If your saw blade gets too sticky from the tape, just use some fingernail polish remover to clean off the tape glue.

So now that we have links, we need to learn how to use them. The simplest form of chain is a one in one pattern. That simply means that one link hooks into one link. Like the top example in this picture. I just threw together three examples, they need some fine tuning before they are ready to go out into the world, but the picture shows 1 in 1, 2 in 1, and 2 in 2 pattern chains. These types of chains are all very common in pre-1600 crafts.

Chain Patterns Live

When I first went looking for good pictures of pre-1600 chains a lot of the pictures were so poor that you really couldn’t see much, but then I ran across several pieces of chains in a book called the Ancient Hungarians, which was published by the Hungarian National Museum, and suddenly I seemed to find good quality pictures of chains everywhere.

Next time we will talk about shaped chain links.

Chains Part 1

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Chains!

I have had several conversations about chains lately, which means it is time to write a blog.

Some folks seemed fairly confused about what actually constitutes a period chain and what doesn’t. My personal definition of period chains relies on actual chains that I have seen in museums, or that I have located in museum databases, or books. With the advent of digitized databases, and Pinterest, there is no longer any excuse for not being able to locate good pictures of actual chains.

Most period chains are made of drawn wire. Now drawn wire simply means that they made it themselves – a piece of metal was hammered down in size until it was small enough to be pulled through a draw plate, and this process actually produced wire (this is obviously a simplified version of the process). It is possible to add cast pieces into chains, and using cast pieces as a part of chains is a common practice that goes waaay back. This Roman bracelet from the Backworth Treasure, in England (1st-2nd century AD), is a classic example of a complex chain that includes formed beads on wire links, and a cast piece as part of the chain.

But how is a chain made? Well, first you need to have links. For simple linked chains, the wire is wrapped on a dowel or other mandrel, individual links are cut, and then those links are joined together to form a chain. This diagram shows how a basic chainmail style chain is made.

Making a Simple Chain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now something that is VERY important to notice is that the ends of the open links are not pointed. I have never, and I do mean NEVER seen a pre-1600’s chain that had pointy ends on the links. On larger, shaped links, I have seen tapered ends, but we will talk about that later.

Modernly many folks feel that the easiest way to produce links to make a chain is with some sort of wire cutter. And what sort of ends does a regular wire cutter produce on wire?

wire cut with dikes

Now, largely because this is a very easy way to make a lot of links in a short period of time, I often have crafters argue with me that this should be an acceptable technique to use. OK. The first time someone wears something that is made with this technique, and it ruins their clothes by catching, scratching and tearing at their clothes, how cool is that? Even if your points are not sharp enough to do damage, the look is just not correct if you are trying to make something look really pre-1600s. It is really not that hard to do it the correct way.

I remember learning to cut links the correct way a very long time ago. I was working with another jeweler and she wanted to use nicely cut links to teach a class, and it was my job to cut the 500 links. Fortunately she showed me a simple technique to cut the links.

Next time: How to make and cut links, and what we call the chain patterns

Would You Know a Fertility Symbol if it Bit You? Part 2

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So last time we discussed some of the most obvious fertility symbols. If you are offended by mater-of-fact discussions of body parts and sexuality, or you really don’t want to know about what some of our commonly used modern symbols meant in the old days, this would probably be a good place for you to stop reading.

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And then there are the slightly less obvious symbols of sexuality. I look back with amusement at the dishes that I grew up with as a child; my mother would probably have tossed them out if she realized the actual symbolism behind them. They were cheerful painted plates with large roosters in the middle. The rooster being a common fertility symbol throughout most of Europe and Asia, and one that the eastern Europeans and Slavs were particularly fond of. Modernly most people would probably tell you that it was a good luck symbol. But think about it, have you ever watched a rooster in the barn yard jumping the hens? He is the ultimate symbol of the virile male, along with the bull of course, which was a very popular symbol of strength and fertility in groups as disparate as the Picts and the Minoans.

The Mano Fico or figa is a symbol for the female genitals – a fist with the thumb thrust between the index and middle fingers. This good luck symbol was used by the Etruscans and later the Romans. It can commonly be seen in Medieval Italian and Spanish portraits, particularly portraits of children and babies. The best and most efficacious amulets were carved from coral, which had additional protective qualities. This portrait of Anne of Austria as a child is an excellent example of the use of protective amulets in art, and includes a black figa on her belt.

One of the most common shapes that we find in talismans all over Europe, the Middle East, and Asia is the crescent moon. This shape appears on seals that were used to print on clay tablets as long ago as 2300 BC, and even earlier than that in rock art. It is believed that the waxing and waning of the moon, along with the female menstrual cycles, the cycles of the tides, the movement of the sun, and the seasons were all tied together in ancient man’s perception of fertility, life, and death. We see the crescent used by groups as disparate as the Vikings, the Romans and the Hindus, just to mention a few. There are stylistic differences, but they are still all the crescent moon.

Here is an example of just some of the historical forms of the crescent moon. The two crescents on the left are both Roman, the next large crescent is Viking, and the far right crescent is Slavic. The Slavic crescent is a reproduction, but the others are all actual artifacts.crescents

And how about those Christian Fish that have become so popular in the last decade or so? Fish were a major fertility symbol in Egypt, and throughout the Mediterranean. If you place the fish head up, you get a vulva and uterus. Probably not what people were thinking of when they put those little fish on their cars.

The Maypole is a classic phallus. In Sweden you will see poles out in the countryside with a red top. The town signs in Bavaria often have a phallic element to the top of the pole, especially the ones that list businesses. What could be more important than fertility for your business?

Until recently, when people realized that birds could be killed by eating large quantities of uncooked rice, rice was commonly thrown at Christian weddings. This was done to insure the fertility of the union.

These are just a few of the more common historical fertility symbols that are found. There are thousands more. I hope that this brief discussion has made you curious about what other symbols you might be missing.