[seedlingsjewelry]

I'm teaching myself byzantine chain because I think it's very beautiful but something doesn't seem right about my chain...I looked at several different tutorials but can't figure out if I'm doing something wrong or if the jump rings I used were just rather large but it just seems all loose, like the "knots" are going to fall out if not held correctly.

If you can see something obvious or have a suggestion for a tutorial on this weave, please let me know, thanks!

[IcedAdornments]

Those are awfully honking huge rings! lol

I just finished off a copper byzantine bracelet. I used 20g wire to make the rings with a 3mm inside diameter. As soon as my battery charges I'll post a pic.

[smsimo]

Yeah... If you want to use larger rings like those, the wire needs to be thicker.  That looks to be 18G (?).  If so they should have about a 4 mm internal diameter.  There is a great place for information about chain maille at http://home.comcast.net/~zlosk/maille/artable.html  This guy went through and figured out what Aspect Ratio was best for most of the weaves.  The aspect ratio (AR) is determined by divinding the Internal Diameter (ID) by the Wire diameter (WD).  So... 4mm ID divided by 18G WD (1.016mm) = 3.45 AR.  A Byzantine chain works best according to Zlosk with an AR of 3.5 and doesn't work with lower than 3.31.  The best source besides Zlosk I've found for chain maille is www.mailleartisans.com.  They've got awesome tutorials & anything else you need to know!   Good luck!

[seedlingsjewelry]

Y'all are awesome, thank you! Trying again with some 3mm ID rings. Hope I don't drop too many....

[IcedAdornments]

Aspect ratios make my head hurt. Thankfully there are wonderful charts out there for idiots like me who fail in math

[seedlingsjewelry]

Ok, well aspect ratios were making my head hurt too and the only smallish known sized mandrel I had was 4mm but the wire I had was 20ga or 16ga (plus a bunch of smaller gauge I knew I didn't even want to mess with, or larger 12ga and 6ga that ditto, too bulky).

I went to the one site that had the chart of aspect ratios and realized the wire was shown in mm but then saw that the connectors could be more than one.

I had already made a bunch of the 16ga rings with the 4mm ID and was still having the loose problem but then went back and did with 3 connectors instead of 2 and the result was much more pleasing.

I like how chunky it is and the jump rings are much easier to work with for my big hands.

I tried working with some 20ga 3mm ID rings and it was like working with grains of sand.

[smsimo]

Nice job!  I forgot about adding additional connector rings.  In fact my last piece ended up being a 3-connector Byzantine.  My problem was the wire gauge itself.  I bought from The Ring Lord and didn't read the fine print.  Thought I was using 16 G, but realized after I got started (and measured it) that it was actually 14 gauge!  That's because they use SWG instead of AWG to size the wire, and I forgot that important information when I ordered it!  The AR was off, and looked exactly like your piece.  It's better now, but I've got lots of rings that I really don't want to use.  I'll probably just stick to cutting my own rings from now on!

[IcedAdornments]

Ooooo.. if you think 3mm are like grains of sand.. try doing the Jens Pind in 2.5mm 20g rings.

The 4mm turned out nicely tho! I can't imagine making 16g rings tho! I have to hand coil and 18g makes my hands ache.

[memoriesinmosaics]

I have no idea for help, but I love this stuff!!

[Jeanne]

I think all of us have used the wrong gauge or the wrong ID on chainmaille and were disappointed that it didn't work.  It is all part of the learning process.  Keep up the great work.  You'll soon be a pro.

[seedlingsjewelry]

I'm cutting some more tonight! Y'all have to understand, I really have ze big hands so 16ga is like "normal."

I thought about byzantine allll day at work....

Gonna whip it and then keep learning new things...maybe not TINY things though...

[Eiriel]

Byzantine is one of my favourite weaves
I don't use it regularly though. I tend to add a lot of embellishment to me chain after it's made, so using something as pretty as byzantine feels like a waste.

[redfoxjewelry]

Just in case anyone happens on this again, 16 gauge takes 4.5 inside diameter. For 18 gauge you should be using 3.5 but you can get away with 3.6 or 5/32. I have done a lot of Byzantine. It is my favorite weave.